God Forbid Should Biden Not Perform Perfectly

If he doesn't, he'll end up with teeth marks in his arse -- courtesy of the same fleet of fickle liberals who have been eviscerating Mr. Obama over the past week for not performing perfectly. After all, the price of admission was paid and he didn't deliver the goods. How dare the man?

Imagine, if you will, an opera singer who belts out almost pitch perfect arias for 10 years until one night he stumbles and croaks throughout the entire performance. His devoted fans boo him off the stage, toss rotten cabbages, and demand their money back. The reviewers spend over a week proclaiming the singer's career dead as a doorknob. Nowhere in the outcry is it mentioned that the singer was sick as a dog with pneumonia, had a temperature of 104 degrees and a rotten case of laryngitis to boot.

I'm not suggesting that Obama was sick during the first debate of this nauseatingly long campaign nor am I about to say that his performance was pitch perfect. Far from it and I was just as disappointed as everyone else. What I am saying, however, is that while we liberals know for a fact that Obama is not a Muslim, we still haven't learned much about him beyond that over the past 3 1/2 years.

From the moment Obama walked out on stage and before he even opened his mouth, I sensed he was "off." He was actually pale -- strained and drawn looking. At the time, I didn't know about the situation in the Middle East but I did think something had happened to shake him up pretty badly and knock him off-balance.

In a comment on Oh!Pinion, "Octopus" reminds us, or probably more accurately, informs us:

Hours before the debate, an international incident occurred – one that did not get the media attention it deserved.

The Syrian military lobbed artillery shells across the border into Turkey killing 5 villagers. Inasmuch as Turkey is a Nato member and all members are bound by the terms of the treaty, an attack against one is considered an attack against all.

I am willing to conjecture this: Obama spent considerable time that day on the telephone urging restraint among Nato leaders in order to avoid a larger Middle East conflict. Obama has always been focused on performing his job; spouting “blah-blah-blah” before TV cameras has never been his top priority.

Obama flew into Denver late that afternoon to debate a man with nothing to do that day but prepare while the president was dealing with a very serious international crisis, one that our own media pretty much overlooked, at least as far as connecting it to why Obama was "flat."

And don't forget, Romney came charging out like a bull in a China closet, ignoring the rules, changing his stripes yet again - moving from the extreme right to a more moderate stance - and lying and bullying his way through the entire debate. How exactly does one prepare for that?

Don C. Reed makes an astute observation that should be, but isn't, obvious to the media - not even to the hyperventilating Chris Matthews and the rest of the MSNBC crew, not even to the freaked-out Andrew Sullivan, and not even to many liberals apparently.

For an hour I watched the arrogant aristocrat violate the rules of established behavior. He could not even be polite to Jim Lehrer of public television, laughingly announcing his intention of eliminating that program's funding. Romney thought it was funny, joking about how he still liked Big Bird: "Oh, and you too, Jim, haha!"

If Romney is that clueless, rude and uncaring while the nation watches, what will he do when the cameras are turned off, and he is alone with the power of the presidency?

Apparently, "performance" is the new measuring stick by which to judge a debate winner. Not substance. Not truth. Not consistency. Just ask Michael Tomasky who wonders if Obama even wants to be president again.

. . . well, pal, millions of people are kind of counting on you here. All Americans, even the ones who hate you, need you to do your best every day to fix the economy, and you owe that effort to them—even the ones who hate you. Ditto to do your best to protect everyone from violence or attack. And to the people who support you, you owe something else: your best efforts to advance the agenda they wanted you to advance when they voted for you.

Well, I have this to say to Mr. Tomasky:

Hey, Pal: He may be the President but he is first and foremost a human being, subject to the same frailties the rest of us mere mortals are. I realize that this may come as a shock to you but he is not a God nor does he have a magic wand. And you know what, pal? I'll take Mr. Obama, warts and all, any ole day over a highly skilled circus performer who has the money to buy a different costume for every performance and the chicanery to be whatever character he wants to be for any given performance. I also suggest reading this endorsement for Obama in The Nation.

My advice to you and all the knee-jerk liberal whiners out there in la-la land? Take the time to actually read the transcript of the debate. That way, you might not be distracted by cheap theatrics but actually "hear" what the candidates said.
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NOTE: Inevitably I end up with far more articles than I can use, so rather than letting them go to waste, I'll share them here.

For Facebook users, this one is a must read.

From Lorraine Devon Wilke:

I am stunned at my fellow Democrats. Stunned. I have never seen such overwrought, hysterical reactions -- from pathetic whimpering and finger-wagging admonishments right down to screeching denouncements and door-slamming party-defection -- all in response to one slightly anemic debate against a Republican challenger high on his own hyperbole. . . .

Writer Buzz Bissinger -- a supposed "lifelong Democrat" -- has loudly and publicly disavowed the president to declare his vote for Romney

Electablog asks, "Really Democrats, have you learned so little about Barack Obama in the last five years?"

This ain't the 90s, says Earl Yazel at The Raw Story.

Paul Krugman criticizes the media for not being able to handle flat-out untruths.

Maureen Dowd as Maureen Dowd.

SNL mocks debate reaction.

Ezra Klein recommends reading the transcript as well but beyond that we differ a bit:

Reading the debate doesn’t necessarily change your impression of who won — Romney’s answers are still crisper and more focused than Obama’s — but it did give me more appreciation for how specific both candidates were in what they were saying. A few notes. . .