ROMNEY RUMBLED

I thought Mitt Romney was splendid last night.  Not perfect, of course.  There’s a consensus among conservative commentators that he flubbed an opportunity on Libya.  He did ramble some, but I think it was "moderator" Candy Crowley’s intervention that kept him from landing a more solid blow.

Otherwise, Romney rumbled.  He was confident, knowledgeable, likeable.  He was assertive without being aggressive.  Both in what he said and in body language, he was more presidential than Zero.

This is why I don’t buy the near consensus among the punditocracy that this debate was a draw.  If I’m correct in my surmise that this campaign is déjà vu 1980, a majority already has decided that Obama has been an unsatisfactory president, but they are still making up their minds about whether the alternative is better.  Romney gave them every reason to think so again last night. 

 "He easily transcended the caricature of the dumb, incompetent, capitalist monster with no feelings," said NRO’s Hunter Baker.

Obama was much better than he was in Denver, but he was still the lesser man on the stage.  He was aggressive where Romney was assertive; he filibustered where Romney was direct and concise; he was nakedly partisan, and he shrank back in the moments when Romney asserted alpha male status.

The alpha male highlight was Romney shutting Zero down when Zero tried to interrupt him:  "You’ll get your chance in a moment. I’m still speaking."  Zero shrank right on camera and slunk back to his stool.  Wow: 

"Several times, Romney was talking directly to Obama and looking directly at him, but Obama WOULD NOT look at Romney, either in listening to him or in answering him. It’s as if he just couldn’t look him in the eye," said Spectator’s Quin Hillyer.

Obama "reminded me of nothing so much as the guy who defends his girlfriend with excessive machismo because she yelled at him for failing to stick up for her before," said Ricochet’s Troy Senik.

And, of course, Obama lied.  Some of the lies — on Libya in particular — will come back to bite him in the butt.  If you can lie with conviction, you can "win" a debate in the minds of viewers who don’t know the facts.  But the win doesn’t last if the lie is exposed.

The third and final debate – next Monday, 10/22 – is on foreign policy.  This is why I don’t share the angst among some conservatives about Romney missing an opportunity to zing Zero last night.  I’m sure he shall next time.  

I actually think it will be beneficial that Romney was more sotto voce on the issue last night.  The current Democrat/media meme is that Republicans are "politicizing" Benghazi.  By holding back some fire, Romney makes that a harder sell.  Let more facts come out.  Then Romney can slam him in the final debate.

I also think Candy Crowley inadvertently did Romney a favor when she intervened to help Obama.  "Romney should send Crowley roses for messing up the Libya exchange as it propels Libya to the front page tomorrow and into the public’s consciousness as not even an uninterrupted exchange would have," Hugh Hewitt thinks.

The fact that most pundits called the debate a draw indicates to me that Romney won, because journalists desperately want to write an Obama comeback story.  

The instapolls indicate viewers also thought the debate was a draw, or a slight Obama win.  But that, I think, is a reflection of the partisanship of viewers (Democrats are more likely to say their guy won, even if they don’t think he did, than Republicans are), and their view of style points, which are ephemeral.  

The same polls which gave Obama a narrow lead overall – CNN and CBS – said Romney was much better on the economy. 

The Luntz focus group was brutal toward Zero.  Ouch.

The debate was stacked against Romney.  All the questioners were Obama voters in 2008.  One of the "undecideds" was a Code Pink activist.  Nearly all the questions had a liberal slant.  

And Candy Crowley intervened whenever it looked as if Zero was about to get pounded – she interrupted Romney 28 times.  Yet Romney maintained his composure throughout, deftly handled nearly all the loaded questions, and delivered a concise, devastating indictment of the Obama presidency.  

Jay Homnick of the Spectator thinks Romney was even better last night than he was in Denver.   I’m inclined to agree.

However, I must confess something.  Thank God that it was only Candy Crowley’s bias that was naked last night.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.