"The Tribunal has reached a decision. Jim Lehrer, you have been voted off the island. You must leave immediately and take your standard bearer with you. On Monday you must report to "Dancing With The Stars". If you own red pants and braces you must wear them to the Cha Cha Cha audition. Goodbye and Good luck." And so it went for America's fill-in-the-blank and trusted moderator for the first Presidential Debate on Wednesday evening, October 3, 2012.
Eager to touch base with one of my favorite twitter pals who had sent me a DM asking me what I thought of the debate I answered that I thought it had been dull, that Romney had won, that I was disappointed that there had been no classic zingers between the two men. It was dignified, boring and polite. No game changer. She agreed but added, "Didn't POTUS look like he stopped off somewhere for a "snack"? Hey, I don't know about that but he looked disconnected and uncomfortable, besides it's Denver for God's sake. Who can actually breathe there? Half the people who live there must be brain-dead from the lack of oxygen. You know, the John Denver song?
In any case, the format was described as six 15-minute segments. Don't even ask about the subjects...everything got thrown into the washing machine at the same time and the colors ran badly, bleeding into each other. At one point President Obama asked 'the moderator' to change the subject. He couldn't because he had lost control of the debate several segments back.
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The two men tangled with each other aggressively and showed that they knew their stuff. They were both strong. Although the President looked down most of the time or at Lehrer while Romney looked at Obama most of the time. There was some odd body language going on -- those who study these things will undoubtedly be called upon tomorrow to describe in detail every little blink and what each man was thinking.
I had a few favorite lines to quote but I think the one I will probably remember best from tonight's installment came from Governor Romney to President Obama. "You put $90 billion into green energy -- you could have hired two million teachers with that money."
