Debate 2: Obama’s chance to shine?

By all accounts, Romney won the first Presidential debate by appearing confident and composed whilst Obama appeared unsure and hesitant. That they argued over the economy and the minutia of each other’s spending plans didn’t matter much (except to the fact checkers, who had a field day with whoppers from both candidates!). Their composure and ability to appear to comprehend what is going and what they would do about it is what matters.

 

Tonight the candidates meet again but in a different environment and with a different topic. The debate will be ‘town-hall style’, with people allowed to ask the candidates questions in a supposedly informal atmosphere (informal being easy to do when 30m+ people are watching!). The focus will be different as well, with Romney and Obama talking about foreign as well as domestic policy.

 

So what do the candidates need to do differently, either regarding their previous debate or their wider campaign?

 

For Romney the issue will be appearing relaxed and charismatic. He stood at the podium in the last debate and never seemed to change his facial movement when the President was speaking. His head was slightly to one side, his mouth in a half-smile, his gaze directed at Obama. He was as steady and unmoving as cardboard cut out placed in concrete. This will need to change as he tries to interact with each voter who gets to ask a question and deals with the issue at hand.

 

Charisma is also an issue for Romney. His voice rarely fluctuates and his body language appears restrained and far from relaxed. Whilst his opponent has the ability to relate well to those he talks to, Mitt struggles and will need to appear warm, open and lively. After watching him deliver the same speech over and over again round the US, I can tell you this is a big ask!

 

As for Obama, he has two things to work on as well. Firstly he must focus. Many people commented on how he didn’t seem to engage with Romney, how he ‘erm’ed and ‘uh’ed a lot in his answers. Some blogs and pro-Democrat news sites even ventured that he was weighed down with Presidential business, that some great news story would appear to show why he appeared pre-occupied. Now this didn’t hold water for me at the time because of his excellent speech at the Press Club dinner earlier this year, when he joked and appeared relaxed whilst knowing Navy SEALS were taking part in an operation that could see the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden. But it also wasn’t backed up by later reports – big things were going on in the world but nothing major to distract Obama.

 

Secondly, Obama must go on the attack. He simply didn’t go after Romney enough in the first debate. It’s true that incumbents traditionally have a rotten first debate, so maybe Obama didn’t want to break that pattern. But now he really must go on the offensive – go after Romney on the 47% comment, deal with his fiasco of a foreign policy trip earlier this year, really wrestle with Mitt’s big money backers and lack of clarity on what he’d do with Obamacare (the President needs to really claim that policy and outline why it is brilliant...well most of it is).

 

I said I wouldn’t watch the last debate and I kinda...slightly...did. But this time I really won’t be watching it, so I will wake up tomorrow to see what happened. Obama really has to do well in this debate to set himself up well for their final meeting. This election is still his to lose.