Both liberals and conservatives agreed on one thing during the 2012 presidential campaign. Mitt Romney cleaned President Barack Obama’s clock in the first of three critical debates.
The new documentary Mitt, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend before heading to Netflix later this month, reveals that even that win couldn’t dent Romney’s shallow self-confidence.
In short, he was frightened of what Obama could do in a debate setting.
The Washington Examiner describes the film as showing the GOP challenger as “almost resigned” to losing to Obama in the second and third debates even moments after his decisive victory.
Such a clear-cut triumph would seem a huge confidence-builder, but afterward, Romney seemed mostly concerned that Obama would come back and beat him badly the next time. “Sitting presidents have a very hard time in these debates,” Romney told the family. “They feel like, who is this whippersnapper coming up here who knows nothing? And so they don’t prepare, and they just think they can waltz through it. Then they get crushed in the first debate, and then they come back.
Romney entered the second debate hoping for a tie, not a win, something the film depicts as part of an over-reaching approach to a campaign that would end unsuccessfully on Election Day.
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