The landslide debater
by digby
Someone sent this in an email and I thought it was worth sharing:
I remember watching it and everyone in the group I was with was slightly appalled. (Sadly, it turned out that he had Alzheimer’s disease — but it was obvious in 1984.)
Let’s just say that debate performances aren’t everything. That guy won his reelection in a landslide.
On the other hand, perhaps President Obama might keep this in mind in his second debate:
It is a pretty straightforward story. President Obama was pushing toward his 2008 margin among the Rising American Electorate– particularly unmarried women – according to this pivotal research completed right before the first debate. But the debate touched on none of the issues that have moved these voters.
According to this survey and focus groups, Obama can get to 2008 levels when he makes
Romney own ‘the 47 percent’ and offers a robust message to make this country work for the middle class again – with more punch and choice, more values, more on the consequences of unequal power, and above all, big policy choices that go well beyond the thin rhetoric of the first debate.
And just for fun, he might use the word “women” a time or two. They represent about 60% of the people who vote for him.
Update: The research linked above said that the way to get these women back in the fold was to link women’s issues with economic issues. Irin Carmen’s story at Salon suggests that the President is listening:
By Friday, two days after the debate, Obama implicitly conceded he’d goofed up. There he was, talking up his women’s health positions and his appointment of two women to the Supreme Court in Fairfax, Virginia. He even adopted the feminist line that reproductive health issues are also economic issues, saying there was something that didn’t “get enough attention in the debate other night, and that’s economic issues that have a direct impact on women.” (Wonder how that happened!)
Obama touted the Affordable Care Act’s women’s health provisions, including no co-pay contraception, saying, “I am proud of it. It was the right thing to do, and we’re going to keep it.” He also jokingly tied in Romney’s support for defunding Planned Parenthood with the similarly politicized yanking of PBS funding, the sole meme-generating moment of the debate: “Governor Romney said he would get rid of Planned Parenthood funding. Apparently, this, along with Big Bird, is a driving the deficits.”
.