2nd Presidential Debate Preview

  Do not expect this debate to be another knock-out for Governor Romney.  President Obama will come ready to play this time.  He will bring his “A” game.  If all goes according to plan, this debate will be a draw.  However, a draw in the debate is a win in the polls for Governor Romney.  It reinforces his “presidential” appearance.  Americans have known for a long time that change is needed.  They just have not been comfortable with Governor Romney.

Every time Governor Romney gets face-time with the American voter, he will make them more and more comfortable with him as President.  The town hall style of this debate will allow Governor Romney to engage with everyday Americans.  That will be a big plus for him.  Look for both Governor Romney and President Obama to walk towards the person that asks a question.  President Clinton did that and made America believe that he really did “feel our pain”.

As for the attacking, it will be more aggressive by President Obama than by Governor Romney.  President Obama is under pressure to recover from his poor performance in the first debate.  He will bring out the “47 percent” and the “where are the loophole elimination specifics?” and ‘how are you going to stop the Iranians?”  Governor Romney will not respond directly to the President on these attacks.  Instead, he will speak directly to the audience and explain his planned solutions.  Governor Romney will only look at the President when he is attacking the President.  Look for Governor Romney to raise the 23 million people out of work, the forty-something million people on food stamps, the economy growing slower than the previous quarters, and the raise of radical Islamists burning American flags and killing our Libyan diplomat.

President Obama has a tough balancing act here and he could screw it up again.  He has to demonstrate that he is the “alpha dog” in the race (after all he is already the President).  But, he has to maintain his “likability”.  It is very possible for the President to overdue his attacking and allow Governor Romney to appear as the more likable candidate.  If he spends more time talking to Governor Romney (rather than the audience) he will be losing the debate.  In fact, there is a very high likelihood that this will happen.  If it does, Romney could score a devastating win in this debate.  A win that could “seal the deal’ on this election.

Then again, it may very well be a bland, no gaff debate.  In that case, it will be a draw – which is a win in the polls for Governor Romney (but not a knock-out).