While many people were perhaps surprised by Mitt Romney’s commanding debate performance on Wednesday night, the cast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” came off as downright stunned the next morning.
On Thursday’s broadcast of the morning show, host Joe Scarborough likened the debate to the 1990 upset title fight between then heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and long-shot challenger Buster Douglas in Tokyo.
“Chuck Todd, I’m sitting here racking my brain going, when have I been this surprised and when has the whole sort of chattering class been this surprised?” Scarborough said. “And you got to go back to Tokyo, Buster Douglas takes down Mike Tyson. And you just sit there going where in the hell did that come from? And that’s where we are this morning. Where did that come from?”
Scarborough’s MSNBC colleague Chuck Todd said Romney deserved more credit than that, but Scarborough explained the analogy was to liken President Obama’s listless performance to Tyson’s letdown.
“You know what, come on now — Mitt Romney is a much better heavyweight fighter than Buster Douglas ever was,” Todd said. “But I hear ya.”
“That’s not the comparison,” Scarborough replied. “It’s more the Tyson side of it — you can’t believe that the champ was taken down.”