Cock-a-doodle-doo

      For the past couple of weeks liberal bloggers have been basking in the several-point lead that Barack Obama has had over Mitt Romney in national opinion polls. Most of these polls were conducted in homeless shelters and welfare offices, but that doesn't bother anyone as these are assumed to be a good sample of the American public.
     Tonight I saw the debate between Romney and Obama, and while Obama didn't do an absolutely terrible job Romney hit a home run. He needed it.
     One thing that needs to be driven home is the issue of tax rates. Obama keeps saying Romney wants to give the wealthy "tax cuts." Romney repeatedly said that the total share of revenue raised from the wealthy would not change, but that he wanted to cut rates and eliminate loopholes and shelters. Obama would then say again that Romney only wanted to give tax cuts to the wealthy. Romney would again have to correct him. After three or four times Romney all but said "Liar, liar, pants on fire," but in a polite way, comparing Obama to one of his children stretching the truth.
     Romney actually took on a few Shibboleths of the left. When Obama said quack-quack-quack about tax breaks for oil companies, Romney pointed out that these breaks mostly went to small producers and totaled about four billion a year, compared to the $90 billion Obama threw away to his donors on various "green" projects (why isn't Obama in jail for this?). "I have a friend that said you don't pick winners and losers, you just pick losers," Romney said. When Obama  went bleat-bleat-bleat about companies getting tax breaks for shipping tax jobs overseas, Romney told him in no uncertain terms that he had been in business for 40 years and he had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. "Maybe I need to get a new accountant."
     Part of the problem is that Obama, while a great speech reader, is fairly limited intellectually. He's never been able to speak without a teleprompter.
     Fox News Pollster Frank Luntz had a focus group watch the debate that had a large number of undecided voters. Thirteen of 25 had voted for Obama in 2008, so it was split 50-50. Virtually everyone said they believed Romney won the debate, and most left the debate saying they would vote for Romney. They tended to appreciate the fact that Romney pushed back against Obama's attempt to define his views, even over the moderator's objections.
     Several focus group members noticed body language issues, namely that Romney looked at the camera, looked at the moderator and looked at Obama. Obama spent a great deal of time looking down at the podium. This was also noted by Brit Hume after the debate. No one described Obama in positive terms, with "flat" being the terms used most often.
     One can argue, Rambo style, who drew first blood, but Obama hasn't made it a priority to get along with Republicans. As a practical matter he hasn't made it a priority to get along with Democrats, either. He doesn't like people in general. He actually belongs at some foundation, not as president. But the focus group uses a little knob to rate the candidates, and regardless of party Romney was absolutely off the charts on his closing statement when he talked about how he had to work with Democrats as governor of Massachusetts and that it would be his top priority because party aside we were all Americans.
     Of course, George W. Bush got along famously with Democrats in Texas and arrived in Washington thinking he would be able to perform the same magic. They soon informed him there would be none of THAT nonsense.
     It's going to be interesting to see how the next few days play out. The Luntz focus group was impressed with Romney. It was the first time many had seen him defined by anyone other than the Obama campaign. Finally our day in the sun has arrived.