FTA: "Obama seems to lack the basic emotional skill--surely of enormous importance to any task of political leadership--of accurately sizing up other men, whether they be allies or rivals, and of adjusting his view of them to take account of new information."

That's a great observation. But I don't think it goes far enough. He is a user and a liar. He used Jeremiah wright for political connections and cover, knowing full well what he preached ( and agreeing). He then threw him, hard, under the bus, wink wink. As to Mitt, it's all projection. He is projecting onto Romney what he is and does.

Loved the Seinfeld jerk store reference.

Given the venue of the Mile High City perhaps the stooges at his rally knew what the heck he was saying.....I surely didn't get it. But then I'm down here at sea level.

Obama demands that we believe what he is saying, no matter how much of a stretch it is.
After his empty chair performance in the debate Obama just gets harder and harder to believe.

Two weeks ago, Obama said he is "eye-candy". He really believes that and he didn't know how to act when standing next to a really handsome man. He was no longer the "prettiest" face on stage. Jealousy set in and he forgot all of his lines. LOL!

Jerimiah Wright was not thrown under the bus according to Ed Klein in the book The Ameteur.....he was well paid and prepared for the denial that came his way. O and his mentor will once again embrace.

We all know that the Obamboozler couldn't recognize the truth if it bit him in the backside. Now we see that it took him and a team of writers 14 hours to figure out what happened to the seat of his pants...

James Taranto is HA HA HA HA HA Delicious.

Amazing how inept Obie really is when made to re-associate his anger with his inner self, then held accountable to explain his action.

Obama should scold his handlers. It's all their fault for not giving Mitt his copy of the script. Romney is a Republican, and everybody knows Republicans are supposed to turn the other cheek and then bend over for more unmentionable mistreatment.

So now, Obama has to go out there and create ridiculous lies about Mitt to save face.
.... Wonder when they will attempt to accuse Mitt of being racist. After all, the race card is what got the man elected in the first place.

Limbaugh is soooo on the money with his observation that liberals have impressions of republicans and conservatives that are completely bass-ackward.

Their existence as the good and smart guys exists only on the premise that we are stupid and evil.

Talk about ass-backward !

I wonder if anyone else saw how quickly he exited after the customary handshakes after the performance? Moooochelle following quickly after him.....

President Romney stayed on stage with his wonderful family around him....

The difference between the two men is obvious....

LZK

#10, you are on a roll today. Great question you had: "Wonder when they will attempt to accuse Mitt of being racist. After all, the race card is what got the man elected in the first place."

More and more people quietly agree, but they are intimidated into silence. In other elections, most people displayed signs for their candidate or weren't too quiet about whom they were going to vote. This year is very different - I don't see many signs or bumper stickers. I substitute teach most days and worry that if I put a Romney bumper sticker on my car, I'll have some damage when I get out of school. I do look to see if there are any Obama stickers on cars, but I don't see many. It could be they are too embarrassed now.

Agreed, #12. Who was the most interesting man in the room this time? Hint: Not Barry.

So instead of a Manchurian Candidate we have a Massachusettsian Candidate...?

FTA: ''[Obama] didn't show a spark of anger, even when Romney slyly found a way to call him a boy, comparing Obama's statements to the sorts of childish lies his "five boys" used to tell.
How the right's hard-core racists must have howled at that! Mitt, at long last, has secured his base.''

Another example of the derangement of the liberal mind. Took some serious pretzel-work, but the liberal moonbat managed to squeeze in the expected 'racism' crap. These people are certifiable.

Obama was never the big dog the MSM helped him play on TV.

That became painfully clear when we watched him go on stage and shrink before our eyes. On his own and confronted by a man who really is strong and confident, Obama reacted as outmatched bullies often do. He tried to make himself a smaller target. He stuck to the only "weapon" he has needed for the past four years...talking points.

Watching Romney take down the president and the MSM at the same time was the best thing I've seen on TV in a long time.

WYH jibber jabber is the Big Zero yammering now?

#13....I don't put a Romney-Ryan sticker on my car for the same reason. In my travels around the DC metro area, I look for Obama bumper stickers every day. It's a rare day when I see more than two of them. I occasionally see an old one from 2008, but not many new ones. A neighbor of mine had one on her car in 2008, but it's gone and has not been replaced this year. I see very few yard signs for Obama this year. I was in DC yesterday (16th Street area) and only saw one yard sign for BO & Joe.

Obama at the debate looked frustrated. This, in my opinion, is because he knew that he didn't have adequate intelligence to deal with an unscripted conversation and certainly could not confront Mitt Romney's vastly superior intelligence. Being a rather slow-witted individual, he just wanted off stage. There is no mystery as to what the situation was. It was simply a display of the pipsqueak's mediocre natural abilities.

Give the guy a break. He thought that going on the View and David Letterman Show, to answer the tough questions that they would surely ask him, would be great debate prep. How could he or his handlers have known that the answers he gave them (telling the View that he is "eye candy" and telling Letterman that he didn't know how much the deficit was) wouldn't work in a Presidential debate? /S

I've always thought our President was just a Hugo Chavez wannabe.

From this article, Taranto posits that the coddled Barack, mmm mmm mmm, is instead and amalgam of Nick Marshall's estrogen infused upbringing (in What Women Want) and Xerxes' stroked egotism as described in the movie 300. Therefore, the Churchill bust was really returned due to jealousy over Winston's high thread count silk underwear and not British colonialism.

And Obama's hormone response the next morning after the debate, is indicative.
Taranto might be on to something.

#16 Those who see sly racism in the most innocuous of comments remind me of my college literature professor who read sex into the most innocent and least sexual of stories and poems, right down to the shedding of autumn leaves in Vermont being a metaphor for a striptease, and a walk into the snowy woods being a reference to female frigidity. The racism is in their own minds, and they read it into everything around them.

Choomer-in-Chief was off his drugs. He looked terrible: thin skin, bags under his eyes, the looks of an addict. The morning after dosage was the correct one.

Recently Paul Ryan spoke at the American Values summit (do not remember exact name). He said many great things, but one thing in particular lit up the place. He said that one thing BO is good at is setting up Straw Men in order to knock them down.

Because BO is so arrogant, he thought he could waltz in and dazzle the watching world with his swagger and pomp.

Now, now that 60+ million people watched this first debate, a straw man became obvious, and it wasn't Mitt Romney.

Next day, of course, BO resorted to his straw man construction --or an attempt at it-- with the usual culprits throwing in their two cents.

I think, and i hope and pray, that we are on much firmer and more real grounding.

Looking forward to the Ryan/Biden tete-a-tete!!!

#26 Looking forward to the Ryan/Biden tete-a-tete

Perhaps you meant tete-a-tot ?

P. S.: Here's the info. in order to watch the Ryan speech at the Values Voter Summit, put on by the Family Research Council:

... you can go to c-span.org, to the "video library", Sept. 14, 2012.

I was kinda amazed to see how Obama had recovered during his stump speech on Thursday, the day after the debate. He was his old self, seeming none the worse for wear.
Then I remembered he was reading from TOTUS. Ya gotta give serious credit to Jon Favreau, the wunderkind that leads the speechwriting team at the WH (who rewrote OB's 2004 DNC speech for him in Boston).

Without Jon's words and TOTUS at debates, he is screwed.

I'm from NY State and visiting Beaufort, SC. I've seen more than a few Romney/ Ryan yard signs and only two Obama/Biden signs, one of which was next to the sofa and chair in the front yard.

When was the last time Obama and Ambassador Chris Stephens were together, alone? Did they have a lover's spat? (both are gay). It was reported that one of the gay choir guys in Rev. Wright's church had an untimely death early in the run up to '08. This kind of problem isn't unknown among the secretive, closeted homosexual community.
Pile on.

That's not the Blago, Wright, Rezko, grandmother, green company, donor, economy, God, muslim brotherhood, Pakistani roommate, narcissism, etc. I used to know.

What a contrast between the unplugged Obama on Wednesday night and the replugged teleprompter Obama of Thursday morning. On Wednesday night he was coyote ugly, on Thursday morning he was all prettied up again. That electronic teleprompter makeup does a body good.

Even if little Barry sleeps in a Holiday Inn Express on the eve of Debate II, I don't think he can avoid being filleted by a jackhammer.
It might be kind of hard to watch.
(no, not really)

Known or no,if Obama is re-elected, better pull some dough out of the bank. I forsee a "bank holiday" and a re-valuation of the currency a-comin'
the congress has aleady had hearings on eliminating 401Ks. Number one, the govt wants to stop the $80 billion in deductions whatev they are called. and two,
the 401K money is to be 'removed',confiscated, turned in to be matched up w/ your soc sec and then the govt will re-jigger it to pay you 4.4%annuity or pension.All this discussion was at zerohedge.com last year.

My new name for Romney is Big Red.

NO, the Mitt the MSM built and Obie believed existed was a mirage...the real Mitt showed up and KICKED YOUR Behind!

Ryan will roll up the facts and give them to Plugs Biden in a giant suppository. It will be harsh, they don't have any idea what is coming. Two bright (R)gentlemen will leave them (D) in tatters.
So sad.

Why is that moronic Andrea Mitchell so surprised at John Sununu describing Barack Hussein as "lazy." B. Hussein told Barbara Walters that he was lazy. Said it himself. No need to take it back, because it's true and everyone, including the MIC, knows it!

Nobody told el Presidente he had no clothes on--again!

Any person not prejudiced for any reason against Mitt Romney could have foretold his debate performances (including the next two.

He can think on his feet and change the game according to what the other dish out. What can o come up with to throw him off stride short of law breaking--not that that would stop o and co.

The past is prologue and he had all kinds of syuff and approaches thrown at him in the primaries (via Newt called a liar and class warfare for one)including Palin getting NC for Newt and then trying to get the pack to drag the primary out, wasting GOP standard bearer's money.

Certain strengths above the run of the mill they may never guess at as they project their own desires and motivations onto him. IOW, they still do not know him.