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| NEW YORK, NY - MAY 03: LeBron James #6 of the Miami Heat looks on in the first quarter against the New York Knicks in Game Three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals in the 2012 NBA Playoffs on May 3, 2012 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) |
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/mitt-romney-47-percent_n_1941423.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk1%26pLid%3D215834
He doesn't seem to think what he says, or how often he contradicts and reverses himself, matters, so long as he sounds and looks good. The scary thing is that he may be right. This seems to have been the lesson of the Kenny-Nixon debates more than 50 years ago, when TV was in its infancy.
http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=kennedy-nixon
Although there are those who contend that debates don't decide presidential elections, e.g.,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-03/debates-fail-to-decide-elections-amid-mythology-of-kennedy-nixon.html
it's hard to ignore the buzz after Wednesday night's opening encounter.
Whatever the case, by 1968, Nixon had figured out what he had done wrong and made the most remarkable comeback in American political history. Writer Joe McGinniss told the story best in THE SELLING OF THE PRESIDENT 1968.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selling_of_the_President_1968
The scariest comment I have heard so far, following Wednesday night's debate, came from a friend in NYC, a political scientist, who said he tossed and turned that night, because he felt that Barack looked and sounded like a guy who didn't care if he won or lost... a president who was worn down by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, whose legacy as the first black president is secure, and who would just as soon spend more time with his family.
I hope my friend got that wrong. In 2004, prior to his meteoric rise thanks to a single convention speech, Obama famously said, "I'm LeBron. I've got game." I hope we are going to see that LeBron is back in the next two outings against the Mutt.
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