Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Barack Obama's "Steel Curtain" Brought Mitt Romney's Post-Truth "Wildcat" Offense to its Knees in the Second Debate

President Obama just ethered Mitt Romney.

Barack Obama delivered a clinical beat down of Mitt Romney in the second presidential debate. Obama supporters will still be holding onto their misplaced dream that the President's poor performance in the first debate was some deep game of political chess. They remain incorrect.

Tonight's outcome is far more simply explained: Barack Obama was much more prepared for his second outing against Mitt Romney. While boxing is a poor fit for describing Obama and Romney's first debate, this second contest is akin to the wildcat offense in football. Romney's trick play of obfuscation, factual pivots, and post-truth speech was countered by a well-practiced and prepared defense. At this point, Romney is running a one-dimensional offense and was exposed as such. This allowed President Obama to score on both offense and defense (almost) at will.

Entering the debate I was, and remain concerned, about the stylistic limitations faced by Barack Obama in these presidential debates. Obama lost the first match because he was passive and too gentlemanly. The public and his advisers clamored for the President to show some fortitude, passion, and energy against Mitt Romney, to confront him on what is an obviously disconnected relationship from empirical reality and the facts. In short, Obama had to act "presidential."

However, he is also a president who happens to be black, playing a game that was not designed for a man who looks like him.

Obama is also a black man with all of the stereotypes, projections, and insecurities of the white racial frame transposed onto him. Of course, the Fox News crowd saw an "uppity" and "arrogant" and "threatening" black man on stage. When Barack Obama wakes up in the morning and breathes air the white racial resentment and anti-black animus of the Right is immediately activated. Consequently, their verdict is predictable.

By comparison, like many of you, I too am blessed with what Du Bois described as the second sight that comes with life behind the veil of double-consciousness. This evening, I saw the country's first black president putting in work. The little man came from behind the stove and took Romney out at the knees.

Some thoughts and questions for you all.

1. Am I the only person who wished that there was a thought bubble above Mitt Romney's head? Am I alone in wishing that Romney would have broken script and ushered the racial epitaph that seemed poised to come out of his mouth at any moment?

2. Romney made "special efforts" to ensure that women were represented in his hiring and recruitment pool while Governor of Massachusetts. Funny thing, I did not know that he supported affirmative action (as what Romney did there is what said policy in practice usually involves). If the Right were at all intellectually honest, their heads would be spinning at Romney's policy position on the hiring of women--it stinks of being a "moderate."

3. Was Romney's rude demeanor a function of his entitlement as a rich man? A rich, privileged, straight, white man? His experiences as a CEO, and a particular social experience and identity wherein all people--especially women and people of color--are supposed to be deferent to him?

4. Why didn't Obama take Romney down regarding his lies about supporting Pell grants, a program he and Ryan would cut?

5. Let's call out a willful lie that is caused by conflating capitalism with democracy, and where government is framed as always being a societal evil. Governments do create jobs. They create jobs all of the time. Never mind the New Deal, we can point to many more recent examples of this fact. One does not need to go all wonky and start discussing Keynesian economics to make this basic point.

6. Why are Romney and the Right-wing echo chamber fixated on "Fast and Furious?" This is a conspiracy theory that is of little interest to low information voters and undecideds. When Romney and other talking-point conservatives bring this issue up they are confusing the general public (as most will think of the movie). Their insistence on that ineffective meme is a great example of how epistemic closure has intellectually and politically ghettoized the Right and conservatives in this country.

7. On first glance, am I the only person who thought that the brother who asked Obama a question was a black conservative plant like Herman Cain in 1994? Am I the only person, who realized that said audience member may have simply served up an easy pitch for Obama to knock out of the park with his great promo and stump speech?

8. Was the archetypal Fox News, Rush Limbaugh listener who was "hanging out with his boys" talking about the terrorist attack in Libya a Right-wing plant?

9. Romney had to feed the Culture War gods. Why are conservatives confused about a basic social science finding: people do not miraculously get jobs because they are married. Deindustrialization, and other structural inequalities contribute to the "bad culture" conservatives are so fixated on. Are they incapable of understanding this basic fact? What of all the "bad culture" in Red State America? A curious silence.

10. Apparently, Mitt Romney believes that all people are created equal. But, he belongs to a faith that until 1977 said that black people were second class citizens who go to a segregated heaven. Riddle you that one.

11. He was in the clear; why did Mitt Romney bring up his secret "47% of the American public are losers, bums, and parasites" video? Calculated risk or misstep out of desperation and confusion?

12. Obama mentioned his hometown of Chicago and the violence there. Cue the Fox News talk radio late night conspiracy talking point meme machine! "Obama," "Chicago," and "violence" are a home run for the conspiranoids on the Right.

23 comments:

CNu said...

SHORTER VERSION:

candidate 2: i'm going to rape the planet hard, really hard.
candidate 1: i've been raping the planet for four years now, much harder than the previous rapist-in-chief.
candidate 2: bullshit! your raping of the planet isn't legitimate rape. i'll rape it in all of its orifices at once, private AND public!
candidate 1: hmmph. i've not only raped the planet harder than anybody ever, i'm bombing the brown people too.
candidate 2: aarrghh! i'll bomb the brown people harder, and i'll rape the other planets in my spare time!

candidate 3: (outside the hall) why are you arresting me? i'm just trying to get into the debate and speak up against all this raping and bombing!
America to candidate 3: yawn.


We live in Dick Cheney's America. "The American way of life is not negotiable."

reduce consumption? reuse, recycle, conserve? Hahahahahahahaha....,

nomad said...

CNu, your humor is reprehensible. Bwahahahaha... I mean, tsk, tsk, tsk.

Black Sage said...

He was in the clear; why did Mitt Romney bring up his secret "47% of the American public are losers, bums, and parasites" video? Calculated risk or misstep out of desperation and confusion? - ChaunceyD

Perhaps a Freudian-esque slip was the culprit, including those that you mentioned above! Simply put, Wishful President Romney is not only a liar he’s also a dumb-ass.

Romney made "special efforts" to ensure that women were represented in his hiring and recruitment pool while Governor of Massachusetts. Funny thing, I did not know that he supported affirmative action. – ChaunceyD

On June 17th, 2003, then Gov. Romney gutted the affirmative action policy while the state government was in recess. Apparently, he did this at an opportune time convenient to him, so as to not have any confrontation. Then Gov. Romney’s order stripped minorities, women, disabled people and veterans of equal access protections for state government jobs and replaced them with broad guidelines. Civil Rights leaders complained Romney hadn't consulted them before making the changes, snubbing the very kind of inclusion he professed to support.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/02/romneys-record-on-affirma_n_1564644.html

nomad said...

Last Night’s Debate Convinced Me: I've Just Decided Who I’m Going to Vote for.

http://rt.com/usa/news/police-jill-stein-debate-589/

CNu said...

@Nomad

You didn't think I was making that "why are you arresting me" stuff up did you?

nomad said...

nope. but i knew i was going to find out what you meant in the news. did i say bwahahaha yet?

Invisible Man said...

Chauncey's questions assumes that you agree with his narrative framed in the Black man super hero victim comes back vs evil white man from the planet Woodoo.

Chauncey states "this game is not designed" for Obama yet it wasn't Obama in hand cuffed like Jill Stein dragged out to the pookie for trying to present another popular/important narrative that the American people especially now desperately need to hear. Chauncey is not interested in this narrative as well, which is the problem.


Chauncey goes on and on about

"Obama is also a black man with all of the stereotypes, projections, and insecurities of the white racial frame transposed onto him blah, blah, blach,........."

Wordy wordy wordy. But this is how Chauncey sees it as representative of the Black Bourgeoise. Chauncey is protecting his privilege, making sure he's able to continue to ascend, able to continue "moving on up to the big league" and for his "piece of the pie". The fact that the two candidates stirred clear of poverty and the only minorities that got show cased where working white women and illegal immigrants, doesn't disturb him

What Chauncey doesn't say is the game IS designed for a Black Man from Columbia and Harvard. The game is not designed for Shaquita growing up poor on the South side of Chicago or her family and neighbors, which is why she is totally absent from the debates and this campaign

And my God to say Obama is the "little man", with his pedigree and status connection does not represent the Dubois's veil , that Franklin Frazier wrote about in the book Black Bourgeoisie and Harold Cruse in the Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, the sad thing is these two books are still as relevant as they day they were written. It's like Affirmative action the spoils go to the very Black folks who don't need it, the ones at the top, instead of the ones at the bottom

Obama didn't take Romney out at the knees as they were too busy sounding the same

Especially when they were talking about who would carve up the planet quicker for big oil. And for Obama to chastise Romney about the bank
s is the epitome of hypocrisy.

The reason why we are at the bottom of the well is because as a race we refuse to tell the truth and when a voice like Cornel West does, we want to hang him or give white folks the rope to hang him

chaunceydevega said...

@IM. In what alternative universe do you reside? I mean that kindly. Me, working class guy does not represent the famed "black bourgeoisie". They don't like me; I have little use for them. Plus, I don't make enough money to be part of that clique.

you wrote: "Chauncey is protecting his privilege, making sure he's able to continue to ascend, able to continue "moving on up to the big league" and for his "piece of the pie".

what privilege? sorry i don't want to continue riding the bus the rest of my life. having aspirations is a good thing. or does a life of black mediocrity and poverty make one more "authentic?"

but seriously, in what world would you have some guy from the hard streets of chicago or the white dusty roads of appalachia become president? those are nice stories we tell children to get them to buy into the myth of american meritocracy.

obama, despite his lofty achievements is still framed negatively by his blackness and association--however tenuous you would like to suggest that it is--with black people.

and never forget du bois was not exactly on the come up from the mean streets of Massachusetts either. he was an elitist, a Fabian thinker whose work remains much misunderstood.

Black Sage said...

@IM, I feel you bro! However, Obama is merely part and parcel to the problem. Obama alone cannot magically strip away centuries of slavery, the middle passage, white supremacy, voter suppression, racial discrimination, Jim Crow era or the continual tyranny by the US government, the US Supreme Court, the CIA or the FBI. The authority to do this resides with the collective will of the people. By himself, Obama cannot do sh$t! Therefore, we are looking towards the wrong person to provide us (Black people and the poor in general) with a legitimate solution. This country has essentially had successive illegitimate regimes since Pres. Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963. Again, the power resides within the collective people in order to effect real change within this empire of a country.

nomad said...

"Obama alone cannot magically strip away centuries of slavery, the middle passage, white supremacy, voter suppression, racial discrimination, Jim Crow era or the continual tyranny by the US government, the US Supreme Court, the CIA or the FBI."

This implies that he actually wants to do those things. He doesn't. And we are looking towards the wrong. person. His agenda is almost diametrically opposed. Police state, war and austerity. Hasn't he made that plain enough this past 4 years? But, yeah, I guess even if he wanted to do those things he probably couldn't. Not by himself. But if he really *wanted* to do those things, help from the collective people would be easy to find. Obama is not just part of some independently existing problem. As far as the well being of the black community is concerned, he's part of the opposition.

Invisible Man said...

Chauncey D


Let me get back with you regarding the alternative universe. Because truth be told, you've caught me during a phase of extreme existentialism that arises from fall.

But let me please rephrase my previous post with hopefully more clarity, kind Sir. Your extremely adroit hand- with pen- captures (-as DuBois's "Strivings of the Negro" captured the aspirations of our people during the turn of the century-), the Strivings of Black American Bourgeoise Politics.

And frankly, no body, that I've read, does it better than you. Because the Black Ivy Tower class fails to be able to do it in the Black tradition of James Brown, "Make it Funky" Yea I'm sure you ride the back of the bus, taking notes like Dick Gregory.

So bravo My brother! As my Mom use to say, "go head with yo bad self!" As along as I'm able to interject a different narrative concerning the Black dirt under the rug in a different way than the 6:00pm news does.

Any way, I suspect, soon you will receive your well deserved spoils/comeuppance as you should ( and I'm a fan) while people like Cornel West will get further marginalized for stressing/putting at a premium, the Black dirt under the rug. As this breaks the white liberal/ Black bourgeoise covenant, to trip over the Black dirt under the rug for research and community project$$$ funded because of the suffering of the Black dirt. But never, ever raise up the rug and confront the Black dirt, feel me?

Our President is the manifestation of Black Bourgeoisie Politics and you are the messenger. White liberals need/ promote Black Bourgeoisie politics because it attacks( and you are a intellectual pit bull at this) Republicans and the right wing who are a direct threat to them and the small Black Bourgeoisie class. Seriously, I've lost white friends by dissing the Black Pres.

But as far as the Black masses go, they are in fact controlled by the Black Bourgeoisie and white liberal class. In other words Romney never represented me, but President Obama and liberal democratic governors and mayors do and we continue to lose enough ground to such an extent that it's worth investigating seriously our options about leaving this plantation. Remember Bush didn't ethnically cleanse the whole south and west-sides of Chicago, a Democrat did, the same democrat connected to this President.




Invisible Man said...

Black Sage, man

I'm drinking out the same brown paper as Noman is.

The Black Bourgeoise and white liberal class might be able to circle the wagons around President Obama to deflect the truth, but the man's deed is his deed. And his deeds speak for themselves.

noman said...

Whither goest thou, black misleadership class?http://blackagendareport.com/content/how-ghetto-politics-has-outlived-ghetto-and-holds-all-us-back

nomad said...

Once upon a time, in a slavocracy far far away, there were two classes of Negroes...

Anonymous said...

Why would Romney mention heterosexual marriage as a child violence prevention program? And I would like to know how many women Romney hired for top jobs at Bain, and the stats on total women hired by both candidates vs. men.

Anonymous said...

So many are mesmerized by the WWE match that is called the "Presidential Debate", and almost half of those concede it is complete bull and superficial noise. In fact, the debate is actually the opposite of newsworthy. The whole thing is a sink-hole redirection of un-information ("watch this hand as I do an amazing trick"). The only news that came out of it was the arrest of the green party candidate outside. However, no main news source is going to give that any air... HELLOOOO!! Are you starting to get it yet?!?!!!

Come on people! Is the picture not perfectly clear. Meanwhile, some guy with security clearances, absolutely no criminal record, and who is married to a Air Force officer, was put on the no-fly list and was stranded in Hawaii because of his vocal speech against the NDAA??@!!!!!

Seriously, wake up!

Then some backwards 21 year old idiot is flown into the US, and his mother is paid 1,500 dollars for him to participate in a sting operation groomed by the FBI to "blow up" the FRBNY?! Wow, these "foiled" plots happen a helluva lot these days, and the FBI seems to always get them... hmmm.. seems pretty unlikely to me. Or is some senior director trying to put on a show. I think the latter.

Oh, and fast and furious IS crazy, just another case of a federal agency gone rogue, but don't think the Republicans have nothing to do with it. They've largely covered it up because of their own involvement. but it's nothing compared to the civilian drone attacks against innocent muslim people.

And the fact that the US police state is the biggest story not reported: http://www.boulderweekly.com/article-9940-project-censored.html

Stop giving this sham legitimacy. Refuse to watch these two criminals. YOU ARE BEING PLAYED. It's sick. stop, please.

Back to your regularly scheduled propaganda: don't question the narrative, we'll tell you what to think. We'll have millions of new jobs, just if you keep playing our game and vote for one of the puppets we've selected for you. Things will get better, in fact, they'll be GREAT! right after this election, we'll bomb the rest of the world into a parking lot, we'll get the terrrrists, and unicorns will fart rainbows... Promise, kay!! Just stay terrified, put your cute little yellow ribbon sticker on your car, wave that flag, and do what we tell you to do. If you have any other ideas, just know, we're watching you: http://nplusonemag.com/leave-your-cellphone-at-home

And we'll protect and serve the hell out of you until you're a bloody twitching mess.

Black Sage said...

This implies that he actually wants to do those things. He doesn't. And we are looking towards the wrong. person. His agenda is almost diametrically opposed. Police state, war and austerity. Hasn't he made that plain enough this past 4 years? But, yeah, I guess even if he wanted to do those things he probably couldn't. Not by himself. But if he really *wanted* to do those things, help from the collective people would be easy to find. Obama is not just part of some independently existing problem. As far as the well being of the black community is concerned, he's part of the opposition. – Nomad

@Nomad, I’m not implicitly stating that Obama wants to do these things. However, I am explicitly stating that the spark to ignite a larger fire must be born within the will of the collective people. When Pres. Lincoln supposedly freed the American slaves via the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, he had the vast support of the people (primarily northerners) first. During the Reconstruction period (1865-1877), former Black slaves won very many prominent positions and were even elected to positions within state legislatures and the US Congress as well. As an analogy, none of these two junctures in this empire’s racist history pointed to the President as being the primary fiefdom to affect the necessary change to this country’s bedeviled structure. Again, it was the collective people that applied the necessary pressure to commence the initial stages of meaningful change. It wasn’t the same as what Obama referred to as “change” while he was campaigning for the presidency. Halfrican Pres. Obama essentially uttered the word “change” but cloaked it by his mere skin tone as if his skin tone meant that he’. However, his behavior is the same tired nonsense as his White predecessors.

But if he (Obama) really *wanted* to do those things, help from the collective people would be easy to find. – Nomad

Here, you’re suggesting that Halfrican Pres. Obama would be ready at the drop of a hat to get ghetto suited and booted if he’d just locate a worthy radicalized group. This group was presented to him during the fall of 2011 under the name of Occupy Wall Street. What did Obama do? He sent federal spy/infiltrators amongst the Occupy Movement rallies and beat the crap out of them on national/international television by the local police in nearby Oakland and San Francisco and on the other side of this empire, New York City. Occupy encampments were everywhere and easy to locate. Obama didn’t care about them or any other radicalized movement. Certainly, he wasn’t anxious to join them either.

Police State: Of course this empire is a federal police state. Moreover, its worst than when Bush( II) was the president. Hell …. This Eagle empire of ours, through the NSA, is in the process as we converse to build a $2 billion dollars. 1 million square feet spy/eaves drop center in Bluffdale, UT. This same project was halted by Congress from being built while Bush (II) was the President.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/

As far as the well being of the black community is concerned, he's part of the opposition. – Nomad

I agree with you here and I never said that he should be looked upon as the Black community’s shining prince or go to person to solve our current and long standing plight. I’m aware that Obama has essentially turned his back on Black America. It appears to me that you’ve mistakenly mistook my post as an uninformed lemming supporter of Obama. Again, I am not a fan of President Obama!


Black Sage said...

There was once two Negroes during the this empire's slave regime era who wanted to be free, however, due to a lack of knowledge, they were not even conscious enough to know where to begin their freedom quest.

fred c said...

Don't we all agree that things are terrible, the system is terrible and far out of whack, that "they" are terrible, and all of them, and that society itself has been painted into a terrible corner? It strikes me that the arguments herein are a question of prioritization, people prioritize the terrible differently and are quick to sling mud at anyone who lists the terrible in a different order.

This kind of opposition to power is just what the power wants: unfocused; emotional; and possessed of unreasonable expectations. This kind of opposition they can safely ignore.

This kind of thread reminds me of Solzhenitsyn's gulag books, all exclamation points and righteous indignation. There's a place for it, but at some point you need to choose between 1) giving up; 2) preparing for apocalypse; or 3) choosing a course of action to fight it.

Anyone who chooses number three is faced with difficult choices. What are our real-world options? In my former practice I often had to explain this to clients who were full of emotion and indignation. We must, the lecture goes, choose between A, B, and C. Usually the client wanted E, or G, which were not real options. These are tough choices.

Many if not most of you are younger, smarter and more energetic than me, and I sincerely wish you luck. I'm ready to give up, me.

makheru bradley said...

Without another round of shock treatment how does President Obama capture the undecided white voters who put him over the hump in 2008? Economics trumped race for these voters in 2008, but they are not loyal to Obama. The events of 9/15 and McCain’s subsequent buffoonery shocked them into voting for Obama in 2008.

The economy is still the deciding factor in this election, and on that point Romney was hardly brought to his knees.

[After the debate the debate 2 new polls from CNN News and CBS News show Mitt Romney has a big leads vs President Obama on economy. CBS News Poll: A 65% thought Mitt Romney would do a better job on the economy 34% said President Obama would. CNN Poll: Obama vs Romney: On some key issues, Romney came out on top, including an 18-point lead on the economy.
Mitt Romney was seen as better able to handle the economy, taxes, and the budget deficit among the debate audience, but it seems that issues were trumped, or at least blunted, by intangibles, including the expectations game," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

By a 49%-35% margin, debate watchers thought that Obama spent more time attacking his opponent. The president was expected to be more forceful in attacking Romney following his lackluster performance in the first presidential debate in Denver two weeks ago. Other questions showed little daylight between the two candidates among debate watchers on some key characteristics. Romney had a 49%-46% edge on which candidate seemed to be the stronger leader and 45%-43% margin on who answered questions more directly, while Obama had a 44%-40%advantage on which man seemed to care more about the audience members who asked questions.]

Having squandered a big lead, Obama is now reduced to throwing haymakers, hail Mary’s, and shooting 3’s from 25 ft. Mean Joe Greene, Maddog Dwight White, and LC Greenwood won’t help. He needs to be Bradshaw throwing up passes and hoping that Swann and Stallworth make miraculous catches.

Anonymous said...

Isn't this what happened with Nader? I voted for Nader. I threw away a vote. I will not make that mistake again. The truth of the matter is yes, Obama is entrenched but less so than Romney will be. Grover Norquist, and I am sure many of those that are giving billions to Romney's campaign have already made sure their candidate knows the kind of president they desire. And those two are the only real choices we have at this point.

We liberals are always taking the high ground and we keep getting beat because of it. We send our candidates to Washington with lofty goals and the free flow of money in that place immediately makes it clear that no matter how right minded you are, unless you have a spine of steel, you will not get anywhere. Obama knew that because he was already there. If we really look at it, he never claimed to be progressive, he just never corrected us when we presumed that he was. Sure that is dirty, we've already found out he's a politician first. Our bad. Now we know. But to simply say that I will vote for someone else after watching what has gone on for four years? I couldn't in good conscience do that.

Voter suppression efforts, holding those in need hostage, holding putting people back to work hostage, now, veiling threats of job loss if their candidate is not voted for to their employees. Letting them win by not voting will not send a message to change, it will embolden them into thinking these tactics work. I don't know about anyone else but, I don't relish being scapegoated as a race each election.

Besides you can be certain that no one on the right is talking about doing that. They know how important voting is, that is why they are doing all they can to prevent people that will not vote for them from doing so. I don't plan to help them.

SabrinaBee

YouKnoMe said...

Here's a great thought good for conversation..In the days before W., people used to watch this one teevee show titled "Star Trek". TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager. Oh, and the one where Sam Beckett is the ships captain. Things were a bit different then... we were trying to be better people, we are the world, et al. Has ANYONE REALIZED how quickly we're now turning into Star Wars??? I mean.. the Republic now has some shadowy people behind it just waiting for their Palpatine to step in and disband the Senate. They hate women. They hate other races. I have 33 hours of Star Wars Radiodrama/Audiodrama in my computer that agrees with this theory. Any takers?

nomad said...

Yep. The construction of the Death Star is near completion.