Opinion

Why Obama’s weak debate performance is so devastating for his campaign

Michael Hudome Michael J. Hudome is a Republican media consultant whose clients have included John McCain for President, all four national committees and several current and former members of the House and Senate.
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Obama’s losing debate performance may be more devastating to his re-election chances than most members of the chattering class realize. Here’s why.

For the past few years, the Obama folks have been riding what they think is the political equivalent of famed Triple Crown winner Secretariat. Every move they have made and every word they have uttered has been filtered through that lens. And of course the sympathetic media has been complicit.

The problem for Team Obama is that it was never true. Barack Obama was elected in 2008 in large part because of his personality — he was cool — and as a consequence of historical factors that no longer apply.

Nor was Team Obama’s caricature of Mitt Romney as a weird, profoundly out-of-touch plutocrat accurate, as Romney proved Wednesday night.

Once these realities dawn on the Obama folks — and I’m sure they are by now — the Obama campaign will fall apart. There will be a lot of second-guessing at their headquarters in Chicago. Staples will be used as projectiles. It’ll be ugly.

As they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Michael J. Hudome is a Republican media consultant whose clients have included John McCain for President, all four national committees and several current and former members of the House and Senate.