Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) tried to lower expectations for Mitt Romney in the upcoming debates by emphasizing that President Obama is a skilled debater in an interview with Politico. Portman, who has been helping Romney by playing the president in debate preparation, said that Romney is at a disadvantage because despite recent debate experience in the primaries, it’s been 10 years since he debated a Democrat.
“And one thing that I think has been missing in some of the discussion I’ve heard is that Barack Obama is a very effective debater. He’s articulate, he’s smart. He did a great job in 2008, during that campaign as a debater. He had some tough debates with Hillary Clinton and he performed well. So this notion that somehow Barack Obama as president hasn’t had time to really get up to speed – he’s up to speed everyday, because he deals with all these issues, federal issues everyday. Mitt Romney’s a business guy and a former governor. He actually hasn’t had a debate against a Democrat in over ten years I think, I guess it would be 2002 when he ran for governor. People say, ‘Well he’s been debating with the Republicans in the primaries.’ Very different debates. Being someone who prepares people for debates and having been in a bunch of debates myself – you know they have five, 10 people on the stage all within the spectrum of the party that you’re in, whether you’re democrat or republican, is very different than going one-to-one with someone from the other party. So I think Barack Obama will be formidable.”
