As the President’s disastrous debate performance from last week continues to reverberate throughout the left, the Daily Beast’s Andrew Sullivan indulged a meltdown equal to, if not surpassing, that of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews whose epic post debate night rant made conservatives smile from coast to coast.
Since last Wednesday’s debate, many voices have dismissed its importance saying that, historically, debates haven’t really been much of a factor. But the left’s incessant gnashing of teeth over Obama’s crash and burn has certainly magnified his poor performance and made that assumption far less axiomatic.
Wednesday’s debate was seen by a record number of viewers, too. 67.2 million viewers saw Obama self-destruct that night, so add that to this week-long post debate hand wringing by liberal commentators and it has definitely spread that misery to untold millions more.
But, Sullivan’s October 8 meltdown is one for the books. One can just feel Sullivan’s despair, a rage that must have been building for nearly a week. But what finally set Sullivan off was the newest Pew poll that shows that Romney has totally erased Obama’s lead with but that one performance.
“Obama’s performance gave Romney a 12 point swing! I repeat: a 12 point swing,” Sullivan cried.
Romney’s favorables are above Obama’s now. Yes, you read that right. Romney’s favorables are higher than Obama’s right now. That gender gap that was Obama’s firewall? Over in one night…
Seriously: has that kind of swing ever happened this late in a campaign? Has any candidate lost 18 points among women voters in one night ever? And we are told that when Obama left the stage that night, he was feeling good. That’s terrifying.
On top of reporting Pew’s polling results, Sullivan also slammed the president for his disinterest in the whole deal of preparing for the debates.
Sullivan carped that, despite all the many people that came to his aide to shore him up — such as the whole of the media and even Bill Clinton – Obama has frittered it all away with a casual disregard for his “responsibilities.” In fact, Sullivan ruefully notes, Obama was even heard to complain about having to “do his homework” studying for the debate.
This disinterest in his duty to prepare himself for the debates left Sullivan apoplectic. “Too arrogant to take a core campaign responsibility seriously. Too arrogant to give his supporters what they deserve,” he exploded.
Sullivan is worried that Obama will simply “look desperate” if he tries to point out that Romney is a liar after that horrid debate, but the blogger is still trying to “rally some morale” for the President, anyway. But he sure seems despondent.
“… when a president self-immolates on live TV, and his opponent shines with lies and smiles, and a record number of people watch, it’s hard to see how a president and his party recover,” Sullivan sobs.
Oh, the humanities.
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