Everybody is looking for Obama to bounce back by going after Romney. However, that can look bad in a town hall setting, as it will be called "not connecting with people."

As in the Lincoln-Douglass mode. But this requires some integrity on the part of the participants. Romney came out with the notion, "I can say anything!" And he knew Obama would have a hard time cleaning up the damage.

I hope the president has the time and energy to counteract this.

--imm

...monitor and let the lies attack rMoney and any talking through rMoneys words

Unless we're in a time of war, the average American won't care that much about foreign affairs as compared to the economy. Plus, Romney will keep up a barrage of lies about Libya and "weak on defense" to confuse the issue.

Also, the VP debate can be ignored, because that's what virtually all voters will do with it. Unless either candidate makes a gaffe big enough to get replayed on the national news, it will be down the memory hole within hours.

That leaves the town hall on the 16th. Obama better nail that one.

Many of these things are connected.

This is a common tactic.

"To be strong in the world we must be strong at home and that means ..."

"Our role in the world requires us to bear a certain cost of a large military, and this means we must be very smart about how we spend ALL of our money ..."

Etc.

If people perceive it is still a horse race, they will tun in.

Obama has Romney exactly where he needs to be. Obama gave Romney exactly zero useful soubd bites Romney could quote out of context, and at the same time Romney was very clear that he is killing medicare for those under 56, that he has his head up his ass regarding his tax plan, and the only cut he would specifically identify was Big Bird. Romney did not move the needle very much yesterday, and any progress he made came at the expense of him now joining Ryan as being exposed as world class liars.

Given all the race-baiting that Romney/Sununu/Hannity have been doing, Obama could not take any chance of being the "uppity n-word". What he did instead is set the table for Joe to come hard next week.

So everybody, get a fresh box of Depends and just chill for a few days. This is all on target.