Romney Looks to Debates for Comeback
(C) YOU TUBE (C) JF KENNEDY LIBRARY
Governor Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate who is now trailing the incumbent President Barack Obama in opinion polls, is looking to the first debate of the general election to steer his campaign back into competitiveness. After weeks of bad press resulting from a botched foreign policy statement after events in Libya, skepticism about an economic plan lacking details and more recently the release of a video in which he spoke down on 47% of the population he hopes to win over, the Romney campaign now believes that the upcoming debate will be their opportunity to bounce back.
To be held at the University of Denver on the night of Wednesday 3 October, the debate will focus on the economy and domestic policy issues. The networks expect a television audience of 50 to 60 million viewers. Both candidates have devoted significant time preceding the event to debate practice.
The Romney camp spent three days recently entirely devoted to debate practice. At a friend’s private estate in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Mr. Romney engaged in mock debate with Ohio senator Rob Portman, who was playing the part of Mr. Obama. Mr. Portman has been travelling regularly with the campaign, and again joined Romney this weekend in Massachusetts. They will travel to Denver on Monday where Romney will make one public appearance before the debate, but will otherwise focus on preparation until Wednesday.
Barack Obama has not had such luxury, as is typical of incumbent candidates. In comparison to Romney, who has been training intensely for several weeks, Mr. Obama will only begin practice in earnest on Monday at a desert resort in Nevada. Senator John Kerry will meet him there to play the part of Mitt Romney in the mock debates.
Both campaigns have followed the traditional tactic of downplaying their own candidates’ debate skills. Romney aides have admitted that President Obama is one of the “greatest orators of our time”, while Obama has said that his opponent is a “great debater” while he himself is “just OK.” They do this in order to set low expectations in case of blunders.
After extensive preparation, the Romney campaign’s hope is that after this debate, in the words of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, “this whole race is going to be turned upside down.” Many agree that if Romney can simply stand his own beside the incumbent President Obama, and avoid any major gaffes, that alone would be a success.
After the opening debate on Wednesday, there will still be three additional debates in the series. On 11 October, Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan will face off in a debate focused on foreign and domestic policy. On 16 October, Governor Romney and President Obama will meet again in a town-meeting formatted debate. Finally, on 22 October the candidates for top office will meet in Boca Raton, Florida for a debate on foreign policy.
Our image today comes from the video sharing network of You Tube where the JFKennedy account has the full version of the first televised Presidential debate in American political history, between the then Senator John F.Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon. It makes for some interesting viewing. from new europe post
No comments:
Post a Comment