Conservative pundits are unanimous: Mitt’s blowing it. And they’ve got just the advice he needs to get back on track.
In what may have been the key exchange in last night’s debate in the Massachusetts Senate race, Sen. Scott Brown (R) was asked to name his model Supreme Court justice.
Let me see here, that’s a great question. I think Justice Scalia is a very good judge. Justice Kennedy is obviously very good. And Justice Roberts, Justice Sotomayor, I think they are qualified people who actually do a very good job.
Moderator David Gregory wasn’t buying that and pressed Brown to pick one. But with the live audience already booing his mention of Scalia, Brown wasn’t going to be pinned down.
“Well I don’t need to pick one. We have plenty of justices up there, and I’m proud of the ones we have,” Brown demurred.
Here’s the exchange: Read More
I wanted to share a few thoughts on Wednesday night’s debate.
As we all know, both campaigns are going out of their way to lower expectations, portraying their guy as something close to pre-verbal, shambling, perhaps suffering from early on-set dementia, certainly barely able to stand on their own in a debate. That’s nonsense and you can also assume that what the campaigns are currently signaling about their strategies is at least as likely to be mind-games as any real clue about what they plan to do.
Having said all that, what seems to be get forgotten is that Obama is not that good a debater. He’s fine. But if you go back to the 2008 primary debates he always struck me, at least, as a little tepid and uninspiring. Same with the Obama/McCain debates. Again, perfectly fine. But the speech or the rally is Obama’s real medium. Debates aren’t where he excels. Read More
TPM Reader LF wonders who Mitt’s going to be appealing to on Wednesday night …
Reading JL’s take on Mitt’s debate challenge and then stories of Donald Trump’s advice on birtherism, reports of Mitt practicing “zingers,” and Newt’s self-aggrandizing debate advice (highlighting his biggest applause lines) leave me wondering–who is Mitt’s audience on Wednesday night?
TPM is launching TPMPrime, a new members section of TPM for our most passionate and dedicated core readers. Do you visit TPM multiple times a day? Is it a critical part of your news diet? Is TPM important to you? Then we’ve designed this with you in mind. If you’ve already heard enough, click right here to sign up. Otherwise, please join me after the jump to get all the details. Read More
Five new national presidential polls out this morning. Updated trend chart after the jump … Read More
Trump tells Romney to push birther questions at Wednesday night debate.
Are Romney’s struggles dragging down GOP Senate candidates across the country? It looks like they are.
Thanks to everyone who’s signed up for TPMPrime already today. Click here to sign up right now.