1st Presidential Debate – It’s on now!

Finally.  Did you ever think it.  We have arrived at the precipice.  From that long ago, far away state fair in Iowa in August of 2011, yeah folks read that again, 2011, we’ve arrived. It was a long but enjoyable slog through the primary. We survived it and we’re stronger for it.  So here we are at the first Presidential debate.

Hello from Denver, the University of, to be exact.  Jim Leher from PBS, (Yes Tony Government TV), is the lead off hitter for debate moderators.  He looks like the absent minded professor but he is a viper.  Don’t sleep on Jim Leher, he’ll cut you.

This debate is already better than the primaries for the simple fact Jim didn’t make the candidates intro themselves and didn’t do that creepy example intro that Wolf Blitzer always did.  They went with a little thank you to the crowd and then the major thrust of their platforms.  Romney was all economy as was the President.  Obama however led off with his normal mantra, “As you know we inherited the worst economy in the history of….  Thanks Mr. President , no I didn’t know that.  Very nice of you to alert me to the problem.  And by very nice I mean agonizingly repetitive.

Buckle up folks, this is a domestic debate centered mostly on the economy.  In other words – snooze fest.

So who will be the big winner?  Well if you believe Romney’s camp, the President will win in a walk. Same thing from the Obama side, Romney will be the big winner.  Of course both sides are playing the age old game of lowering expectations.  Both sides have made them so low, just staying upright for the 90 minutes would be considered victory.

Be advised, the challenger, in this case Romney, usually does better in the first debate. But currently Romney is not just doing better, he is schooling the President.  We are in Romney’s wheelhouse right now – talking money, getas, greenbacks, mullah, dare I say Dead Presidents.  Romney is owning the President so badly at the moment, when Leher said you’re over your two minutes, Obama apologized; Leher was talking to Romney.

Whoa, Jim Leher sternly tells the President to move it along as he gets long winded on an answer.  I told you people don’t test Leher, he don’t suffer no fools.

The President is playing prevent defense.  As they say in the NFL, prevent defense only prevents the win.  He is in professor mode big time and I stopped listening several sentences ago.

And we’re into the medicare debate.  Just die already old people, it would make it so much easier and we wouldn’t have to talk about this.  Bathroom break!

The substance of this first debate is pretty boring if you’re not deep into public and government policy.  Did you ever think you would miss the old gang, The Herminator and his 999 plan, The old kook Ron Paul, Rick Perry not being able to count to 3 on his hand, Crazy Santorum wanting war with China and my old buddy Newt, eviscerating debate moderators like a kid burning ants with a magnifying glass.

Wow take a quick trip to the can and miss Jim Leher getting steamed rolled by Romney. Jim has lost control a little bit.  I would not have believed it.

Not sure how the pundits will score this but from my chair Romney was sharp, excited and all over the President from the jump.  The President looked bored at times, annoyed at others.  Romney refuted most of the claims the President made about him.  At one point Romney looked right at the President and said “I know you and your running mate are fond of saying that, but it’s simply not true.  Stop saying it.”  The President actually said “OK” in response.  Amazing.

Lets talk about looks for a minute.  The President looked at the moderator or the camera when he responded, even though his responses were to Romney.  Romney on the other hand looked at the President when he spoke to him, and looked at him when the President was speaking.  Mitt throwing down that laser like focus he busted out on Rick Perry, when Perry tried to be the alpha candidate.

For the content, they mostly made claims about each other’s policy’s and then spent their time refuting what each had just said.

So we got the first one out of the way.  The next might be a little more exciting.  That should be the foreign policy debate.  This one was about economics and the President seemed disengaged.  Interesting, maybe why we’re still in the muck financially in this country.

I know the Vice Presidential debate will be good.  Crazy Uncle Joe vs Eddie Munster, are you kidding me, a barn burner to be sure.