| HappySqurriel said: I think this debate should be interesting ... I agree with a few analysts who have suggested that Biden (may have) telegraphed the attack strategy that Obama will probably use in this debate; and I also agree with others that Obama will be probably be fairly aggressive in order to compensate for his poor performance in the last debate. Ultimately, I think both candidates should be able to handle the substance of the debate but I think Romney may have a substantial advantage in controlling the optics of the debate being that he (probably) has a very good idea of what Obama will throw at him. He may be able to address and diffuse attacks before they are made, and focus more effort on increasing his likeability; and if Obama over-corrects and impacts his own likeability Romney may be able to benefit from it. |
One problem for either candidate being agressive this time is that it is a town hall format. So, for the most part, they are going to be adressing specific audience members. Pivoting from answering somebodies question to attacking the opponent can be hard in this format because the politician could come of looking like they are attacking the town hall questioner.
Either way, I think that Obama benefits from lower expectations than he did before. However, he let romney get close so people are going to be paying close attention to both of them. This debate may be the defining moment of this election since the last debate got all the undecided's attention. If one of the candidates pulls off a superior performance, they may just grab the momentum for the rest of the campaign.
