OBAMA CHANNELS GW BUSH -- DEJA VUE

2004 

2012

When you are the president, you should be the one crushing your interlocutor.  Remember, it is his intention to crush you.  Obama inherited more from GW Bush than he bargained for.  He also inherited his high and mighty, "I'm the decider," imperious attitude and facial discontent.  Obama showed what he has shown for four years...a basketball player's pantie-waist preference for slick move avoidance tactics rather than a hockey player's desire to snap the opponent's neck off against the boards.  Obama looked like he had just got out of bed.  Maybe he had jet-lag.  Maybe, and this is what I opine, he was just being Obama...and, oh my God, George Bush, all in one, atr one time.
For those of you who think that I am just reacting to a performance that I witnessed last night.  Not so.  This is a reflection on the historical phenomenon of what happens when an incumbent president has to face an ambitious pretender for the position of President of the United States.  I personally was not surprsised by the conduct of the protagonists.
I have written many times about the propensity that Obama has to maintain himself  "above the fray" rather than to "bare - knuckle" it out with the other side.  He is the most recent in a line of president losers on the night of the opening debate.  The only winner is the champion politician of them all, "Slick Willie" Clinton.
It is no surprise to me that presidents fall prey to the temptation to shut down the noise from their right.  They have been in charge of all these things for four years and they have slogged through the crocodile infested swamp of trying to get things done.  When they hear that they have done nothing worth remembering, they have the scars that show what it took to get done what finally did blossom from their efforts.  I saw George HW Bush, George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter shut down under similar circumstances.  So, what happened last night is nothing but deja vue.  It is the biggest attack on the ego of the "Leader of the Free World" in public view and it takes place once every four years. Every four years the "Leader of the Free World" shrivels up and slinks into the dark of the night still not believing that someone, anyone, could dare to treat him that way.
Yes, last night was entertaining for me.  There was no surprise.  The bull's charge on the matador is always most ferocious at the outset.  The history of the outcomes of presidential debates in this country and the outcomes of bullfights around the world, tell us what happens most often.   True,  sometimes the bull wins.  Maybe that's why people go to bullfights.  They want to be there on the rare day when the bull finally wins one.  Over the years I have not characterized Obama as a matador.  (Cfr. the first paragraph, above)
Therefore, we will just have to see if the bull wins this year.
It's too bad that I will miss the next two encounters.  I'll read about them in Italian.