I remember posting something like this during 2008. I don’t know how to search back that far otherwise I’d link to it.
Obama is not an alpha male. He’s not a leader. He’s not being courteous. In terms of fight or flight, he’s flight. No matter what happens, his reaction to confrontation during a debate is basically a lose-lose proposition for him. He’s not a natural fighter and like most people who aren’t natural fighters, fighting back will not go well for him initially.
When Romney goes on the attack, Obama will respond in one of two ways:
1 - Obama’s natural reaction to in-your-face aggression is to shrink. To be defensive. You can see it in his body language, his face, his tone...everything. He’s in a defensive posture.
He’s afraid. The deep instinct in him is to flee but he can’t flee. So he does the next best thing - he covers up. He looks away. Folds his arms. These are positions people get into when they are hiding weakness.
For those of you who are not comfortable standing up and presenting to groups, think about what you’d do with your hands. You’d stuff them in your pockets or fold them across your chest. That’s the body doing what instinct tells it to - cover up so as to minimize exposure to danger.
That’s basically what happend last week.
2 - If Obama forces himself past his instinctual reaction and fights back, I think he’s in even more trouble. How can he expect to fight against Mitt Romney’s debate points when he’s fighting against how own self?
If he does decide to fight back it will come off as childish with a dash of sarcastic When it comes to fighting, he’s not used to doing it so he doesn’t know how. Fighting back may be an instinct but doing it well is a learned skill. Plenty of guys have the fight instinct but have no idea how to actually fight. They learn it over time.
Time, Obama does not have.
Since he’ll be in an unnatural state (fighting back), his instincts will be at war with his reasoning. This, plus his inexperience with doing it, are a bad mix for him. It’ll change his voice, his inflection, cadence. It’ll mess with his ability to draw on facts quickly, forget about coming up with something new.
For debaters, a debate is a left brain activity. The left brain is used for things like logic and reasoning. As Obama be fighting this war with his own instinct, he’ll be completely in his right brain - emotion, feelings etc..I’d say it’s very unlikely that something good can come of this approach for Obama
Lastly, Obama has another enemy on the stage: Adrenaline.
He’s been on stage a thousand times so he’s used to that. He’s done his fair share (pun intended) of debating so he’s used to that too. What he hasn’t done is stand up to an aggressive enemy that’s right in his face. The first few times he tries this against Romney, he’ll get an adrenaline rush. When that happens, he’ll have all sorts of extra physical energy and no way to release it. It’s not the kind of energy that can be channeled into mental acuity. He’ll be fidgety, shifting his weight, and unable to really focus the way he wants to.
Now all of this will happen very quickly - but it’ll happen. He’ll lose his “soaring rhetorical” voice, the deep sonorous tone we all hate. He’ll “ummm” and “uhhh” even more than usual. He’ll fidget around with a pen or piece of paper. His tone will be wrong.
He’ll try to look Mitt in the eye and may even succeed for a few seconds but he’ll look away before Mitt does.
My summation and prediction is that Romney has figured out how to get to Obama. Obama has about a week and a half left to come up with some kind of response which doesn’t make him look weak and/or childish.
I don’t think he’s going to get there. This isn’t the Rocky movies where he’d learn all new skills over the course of a 5-minute montage.
Obama’s in a lot of trouble these next few debates. Presidential-bid-ending kinds of trouble.
Great post. I can’t wait for the next debate.
Good post. Agreed...
This made me realize that Obumbler has NEVER been tested in a competitive Repub vs. Democrap debate because last time, we were stuck with Milquetoast McCain who is pathetically inarticulate and non-aggressive.
It’s taken this long for US society to realize that the Emperor has no clothes. Thanks to Romney, he owned and outclassed Obutthole the whole debate.
This week with Paul Ryan and Job Bleeding (er... I mean Joe Biden) will be fantastic.
We have 2 incredibly articulate Pres & VP candidates this time
Great Post!
BTTT