Rope a Dope

I’m sure everyone remembers the first time Muhammad Ali revealed his Rope a Dope technique if not let me just say it was really painful to watch. He lay back as George Foreman beat him like a runaway slave. After Foreman had tired himself out, Ali came off the ropes, went on the attack took charge of the fight and beat that ass. I can only hope that’s what President Obama had in mind at last night’s presidential debate because Mitt Romney was all over him. The President was his usual cool self although you could see he was visibly irritated with Romney and at one point I thought he might bitch slap him, maybe he should have, but he remained unprovoked.

Now to be clear Romney still hasn’t said anything of substance he just managed to say nothing louder. No details just “I’ve got a plan”, well what the hell is it? Why not share it, is it locked away in the Cayman Islands along with all the money you don’t pay taxes on? I kept hoping President Obama would employ more sarcasm like when he said, "At some point, you have to ask, is he keeping all these plans to replace programs secret because they're too good, "Families are going benefit too much from them?" Classic. And the lies, the fact checker sites almost crashed, they couldn’t handle the pressure. Apparently that’s Romney’s latest strategy, rather than flip flop as he usually does just deny, deny, deny. The man walked back so far on some of his core positions he had to hail a cab back to the debate. He denied his own tax plan, denied plans to cut Medicare, denied he was against government regulations, I was expecting him to deny he was at the debate next. So now suddenly he agrees with the President on just about everything…so why is he even running?

Say what you will about President Obama’s performance last night but he stayed on point and he remains likeable. Romney hogged the time and the spotlight avoiding questions, cutting off the moderator and several times flat out refusing to stop talking when asked, even insisting on the first question that he should get the last word before he even answered the question. The man obviously has no idea how arrogant, self-absorbed and obnoxious he really is. He always has that superior look on his face that says, “Now you know I’m smarter than you because I’m white, right?”…come on, we’ve all seen that look. And this man will throw anyone under the bus to win. At one point during the debate he even referred to his kids as liars to make a point…disgusting.

The funniest thing to me is how he insists that President Obama has been a partisan President refusing to work with Republicans. Huh??? This seems to be the latest talking point for conservatives, you know how the President is so difficult and hard to work with. Romney said that if elected he would sit down with Democrats the next day to work out a plan going forward and suggested President Obama should have done the same. Ok, but that would have been a little difficult considering the night he got elected Republicans were already behind closed doors into the wee hours of the morning plotting to ensure he would be a one term president…but he’s the one who’s partisan. I’m pretty sure they would have been all blurry eyed, grouchy and uncooperative from a lack of sleep…and would have blamed him.

So today all over the internet are claims that Romney won. Maybe, but what did he win really, loudest, rudest most self-important liar? Ok I’ll give him that but I don’t think that bought him any new votes. Sure he fired up his party but he had nothing of substance to say and I don’t think his blatant lies and distortions changed any minds. And now that he has so clearly changed his positions with those lies, he’s going to have to stick with them and if he doesn’t it will give President Obama more ammunition the next time out. At any rate this momentum will only last to the next debate and you never know what’s gonna come out of Vice-President Joe Biden’s mouth. He may call out Romney as the liar he is or he may tell Paul Ryan to kiss his ass…one can only hope. He may even stop the debate and ask for a moderator with some balls…something that definitely would have helped last night. To be honest by the last debate no one will even remember this one and by that time our President will be off the ropes.