I.e., there's nothing tasteful about debates. Something tells me this is not quite good Latin.
I've been looking at the ad the Republicans cut from Wednesday night's extravaganza, entitled "Smirk", and let me tell you, Governor Romney, I have known plenty of smirks, smirks received and smirks offered, smirks have been a significant part of my life, and I've certainly seen you smirking, and that look on Obama's face was no smirk.
I didn't think so during the debate itself, either. I thought he looked downcast, and pained, at some suffering that was worse than he had expected, and, when he didn't answer Romney's frantic lies, as if he were laboring under a secret vow of silence.
I don't know what they're thinking with the ad, but they've edited the debate down to a montage of machine-gun moments, all the worst lies of the evening, in which Romney spits out an accusation while Obama smiles that sorrowful little smile, and what it looks like to me is this: every time Romney utters a really outrageous lie, Obama winces: it's as if he's Tom Brown being caned for some misdeed of Flashman's and determined neither to cry out nor to snitch.
Why he's silent I don't know: Is he stunned silent at Romney's gall? Is he unable to keep track of them all, let along work out how to answer them in the allotted time? Is he being, under Plouffe's counsel, too "presidential" to call someone a liar? Whatever it was, you can see by the face that it takes an awesome discipline to keep quiet. I'd like to see the ad made directly into a pro-Obama superpac ad, by adding an intro: "President Obama is what they call a gentleman: he doesn't call anybody a liar in public. But sometimes it's not easy." And then maybe titles countering each falsehood as it comes, though they'd come so rapidly you'd hardly have time to read them.
Remember that Obama takes his time. He never says anything until he's ready, or rather until the situation is ready for him, no matter how maddeningly late it seems to the rest of us. Plenty of people, starting with the dear old Times, were ready to do the fact checking anyhow, there was no need for Obama himself to do it except for our simple-minded assumption that that's what debates are for. I'm hoping it's all part of the plan.
I've been looking at the ad the Republicans cut from Wednesday night's extravaganza, entitled "Smirk", and let me tell you, Governor Romney, I have known plenty of smirks, smirks received and smirks offered, smirks have been a significant part of my life, and I've certainly seen you smirking, and that look on Obama's face was no smirk.
I didn't think so during the debate itself, either. I thought he looked downcast, and pained, at some suffering that was worse than he had expected, and, when he didn't answer Romney's frantic lies, as if he were laboring under a secret vow of silence.
I don't know what they're thinking with the ad, but they've edited the debate down to a montage of machine-gun moments, all the worst lies of the evening, in which Romney spits out an accusation while Obama smiles that sorrowful little smile, and what it looks like to me is this: every time Romney utters a really outrageous lie, Obama winces: it's as if he's Tom Brown being caned for some misdeed of Flashman's and determined neither to cry out nor to snitch.
Why he's silent I don't know: Is he stunned silent at Romney's gall? Is he unable to keep track of them all, let along work out how to answer them in the allotted time? Is he being, under Plouffe's counsel, too "presidential" to call someone a liar? Whatever it was, you can see by the face that it takes an awesome discipline to keep quiet. I'd like to see the ad made directly into a pro-Obama superpac ad, by adding an intro: "President Obama is what they call a gentleman: he doesn't call anybody a liar in public. But sometimes it's not easy." And then maybe titles countering each falsehood as it comes, though they'd come so rapidly you'd hardly have time to read them.
Remember that Obama takes his time. He never says anything until he's ready, or rather until the situation is ready for him, no matter how maddeningly late it seems to the rest of us. Plenty of people, starting with the dear old Times, were ready to do the fact checking anyhow, there was no need for Obama himself to do it except for our simple-minded assumption that that's what debates are for. I'm hoping it's all part of the plan.
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| St. Agatha, virgin and martyr, displaying the breasts sliced off by a wicked Roman official, by Bernardino Luini, ca. 1510. From Ex Urbe. |
