{"id":1339,"date":"2012-10-04T10:02:44","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T14:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/?p=1339"},"modified":"2012-10-04T11:16:35","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T15:16:35","slug":"so-romney-won-round-one-but-i-dont-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2012\/10\/so-romney-won-round-one-but-i-dont-care\/","title":{"rendered":"So Romney won Round One: But I Don’t Care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A CNN poll this morning confirms what the pundits were saying last night: Romney was the winner of round one. The survey shows<\/a> that 67% of viewers believed Romney to be the winner.<\/p>\n

But my question is, how much do these debates really matter? They can galvanize and inspire a base around a candidate when they do well, they can serve as a wake-up call for a candidate when they do poorly (as Obama supporters hope will happen here), and they offer independents\u00a0and undecideds and opportunity to tilt one way or the other. But for the most part, the psychological phenomenon of \u201cconfirmation bias\u201d<\/a> (thanks for that, Shane Moe), means most of us have already made up our minds.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a curious thing about debates: If you\u2019ve ever taken a debate class or ever debated in college you know one thing: Winning a debate does not mean you actually\u00a0believe\u00a0<\/em>the positions you take, and it certainly doesn\u2019t mean you are going to\u00a0act on\u00a0<\/em>the positions you take. It means you\u2019ve come prepared for that debate and have argued well, persuasively, etc. It means you\u2019ve embodied well\u2014-convincingly\u2013 the positions you\u2019ve taken for at least that moment in time.<\/p>\n

Now, none of that is meaning-less<\/em>. We want our presidents to be able to hold their own in an argument, to sound \u201cpresidential,\u201d to be able to think on their feet, to be in command of the \u201cfacts,\u201d to have clear positions, policies and vision, and\u2013that all-important element of American politics\u2013to be\u00a0likable. And the level of sophistication and \u201cpresidentiality\u201d last night impressed me in a way that recent past debates haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n

But what struck me last night (as it did most everyone else) was Obama\u2019s failure to hit on Romney\u2019s most vulnerable spot: his 47% gaffe. Here we have a presidential candidate who (when he assumes the cameras are off) seems to despise half the country\u2019s population; a candidate who seems to lack compassion for the poor and the \u201cdown-and-out\u201d and who does not seem to understand the disparate realities created by privilege versus disadvantage and marginalization. And yet, in this debate, he spoke eloquently about how states should \u201ccraft\u201d their own policies to care for their poor. Obama\u2019s problem was that he did not seize on the opportunity to note the disparity between what was said in the public, national debate and what was said at the $50,000\/plate fundraiser. \u201cThe poor? You care about the poor? Since when?\u201d That\u2019s all he would have needed to say.<\/p>\n

I know there are conservative solutions for dealing with poverty and I understand the pro-capitalist argument for encouraging responsibility and self-initiative. \u201cYou can give a man a fish, or you can teach him to fish,\u201d and all that. And there are surely problems with the welfare system as it stands. But as a Christian who leans democrat and an Obama supporter myself. to be forthright, I can\u2019t get the notion out of my head, said by many people in a variation of ways, that the test of the moral health of a democracy is in how it treats its weakest members. The bottom line, for me, is that we need a backstop for the disenfranchised and backgrounded of society. While ultimately I don\u2019t trust any politician to be the answer to society\u2019s problems, if the \u201cweakest member\u201d moral test is a good criterion, I frankly trust Obama more than Romney\u2013regardless of the winner of this debate. But maybe that\u2019s just my confirmation bias at work.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A CNN poll this morning confirms what the pundits were saying last night: Romney was the winner of round one. The survey shows that 67% of viewers believed Romney to be the winner. But my question is, how much do these debates really matter? They can galvanize and inspire a base around a candidate when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kyle-roberts"],"yoast_head":"\nSo Romney won Round One: But I Don't Care<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A CNN poll this morning confirms what the pundits were saying last night: Romney was the winner of round one. 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