I always say she would wipe the floor with him in a debate.....but not if she doesn't take the time to understand how he works. This is my version of Obama's modus operandi in a debate and is subject to error:
I came, I saw, I conquered - Obama's guiding principles
His introduction:
When I started I saw lots of bad things (doom and gloom) – pick 3 or more of the following:
- jobs
- healthcare
- corruption
- decay
- war
I did lots of things to address all the doom and gloom (I won't mention if they were successful or not....)
My opponent sees things differently, and that isn't helpful when it comes to finding solutions
I want us to work together to make things better and remove the doom and gloom.
Opponent response
Focus on some narrow thing and link to the founding fathers. Use facts and figures. Lose the audience
Debate
On Iraq/Afhanistan
• Opponent: We did good
• Obama: You could have been smarter and we are still not secure and thousands have died and we've spent billions
On Obama sitting back and doing nothing:
• Opponent: Obama did nothing about tort reform, malpractice abuse, slum landlords, other stuff
• Obama: I voted for bills to deal with all that...legal mumbo jumob, examples
On guns and crime
• Opponent: Everybody must have as many guns as they want. Obama wants to ban guns - especially assault weapons.
• Obama: I have police organisations supporting me and they wouldn't do that if i was a radical. Besides, who shoots deers using assault weapons? It doesn't fix the problems on the street if you don't control them. Oh and I've voted/supported/written hundreds of pieces of legislation to make us safer
On abortion and the death penalty
• Opponent: It's an abomination. Killers must die.
• Obama: Some killers deserve to die. I agree. You guys use language like slavery, nazis, terrorists to describe those who support abortion. That’s not useful is it?
On the constitution
• Opponent: what you did/support is against the constitution
• Obama: I lectured on the constitution - that makes me more expert than you doesn't it? The constitution also used to support slavery. Do you want to go back to that? It's meant to be amended
On some obscure legislation that could cause a problem for Obama
• Opponent: You supported this evil bill / didn't support this good bill
• Obama: Lots of legal mumbo jumbo - hey presto ! Make sense now doesn’t it?
On gay rights
• Opponent: They're an abomination
• Obama: I understand their needs
On faith
• Opponent: Obama just pretends to be a Christian
• Obama: I've been a Christian my whole life. I pray all the time. I read my bible all the time. (oh and I don't want to impose my faith on you)
On personal finances (opponents is usually bad in some way)
• Opponent: Defend defend defend
• Obama: I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about jobs and taxes and stuff
The tools and techniques he relies on are:
- appear to take the high-road and not attack when he can...raise it to a different level
- when attacked or asked for specifics, deflect, defer, delay, confuse, use moral outrage
- on all things appear to reason and make people wonder why his opponent is unreasonable