--- title: Obama's Debate Strategy Bombs, Giving Romney a Confidence Boost description: Well, I'm with all the other talking heads: Mitt Romney won this debate. Barack Obama lost it. I mean, he got his butt kicked. It... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7184126/the-debate/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-10-04T03:28:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-18T07:27:07.807Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama's Debate Strategy Bombs, Giving Romney a Confidence Boost og:description: Well, I'm with all the other talking heads: Mitt Romney won this debate. Barack Obama lost it. I mean, he got his butt kicked. It... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7184126/the-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8de83b05dcf940c0/698b234e9862f5e7bc89d088/barack_obama.jpg?branch=production&width=600&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 600 og:image:height: 338 og:image:alt: barack_obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama's Debate Strategy Bombs, Giving Romney a Confidence Boost twitter:description: Well, I'm with all the other talking heads: Mitt Romney won this debate. Barack Obama lost it. I mean, he got his butt kicked. It... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8de83b05dcf940c0/698b234e9862f5e7bc89d088/barack_obama.jpg?branch=production&width=600&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) # Obama's Debate Strategy: Unilateral Disarmament? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=c0ecc075-79d1-4351-8f5d-f9ab2b2d4eee&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Oct 4, 2012 3:28 AM UTC  President Obama listens during the first presidential debate, at the University of Denver on Oct. 3, 2012 President Obama listens during the first presidential debate, at the University of Denver on Oct. 3, 2012 2012 Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Oct 4, 2012 3:28 AM UTC Well, I’m with all the other talking heads: Mitt Romney won this debate. Barack Obama lost it. I mean, he got his butt kicked. It was, in fact, one of the most inept performances I’ve ever seen by a sitting President. Romney — giving credit where it’s due — was calm, clear, convincing (even when he was totally full of it) and nearly human. The real mystery was Obama. Where on earth was he? Why was his debate strategy unilateral disarmament?more Why did he never speak in plain English? “Mitt, you’re selling a fantasy. Bill Clinton proved it. He raised taxes on the wealthy and the economy boomed. George Bush lowered taxes drastically and the economy tanked. How’s your plan any different than Bush’s?” Actually, the President did say something like that, but it was well past most of America’s bedtime, about an hour into the debate — and he didn’t do it clearly, concisely or directly. It gets worse. (**MORE:** [Obama, Romney Twist Two Crucial Issues in First Debate](http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/03/obama-romney-twist-two-crucial-issues-in-first-debate/)) You may have noticed that the President never mentioned his most important achievement in the most crucial states: the auto bailout. He never said, “That $716 billion in Medicare savings you keep harping on? That was in Paul Ryan’s Republican budget — you know, Mitt, the one that passed the House because all the Republicans voted for it.” Romney was even able to imply that he may not have such a good accountant when it comes to taking advantage of sending companies overseas without the President saying, “I think you have a terrific accountant, Mitt! Great tax rate!” You may also have noticed that when Romney deftly compared the $2.8 billion in oil subsidies to the President’s $90 billion in green energy, Obama didn’t have a response. This was truly remarkable. He didn’t talk about the world’s largest sun and wind farms. He didn’t talk about the failed energy investments that Romney had made. My colleague Michael Grunwald spent nearly 500 convincing pages in his book _The New New Deal_ describing the accomplishments of the stimulus package, and the President couldn’t even defend it. (**MORE:** [Blue Truth, Red Truth: Inside the Fact Wars](http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/03/blue-truth-red-truth/)) Obama’s cool was ice cold. It was 30 minutes into the debate, by my count, before he mentioned an actual human being. Romney was talking about people who were “crushed” and “buried” — _pace_ Joe Biden — and “hurting” in his very first answer. Romney managed to wax poetic about the pursuit of happiness, meaning that government should help everyone find the American Dream, without the President saying, “Even that 47% you said you don’t care about?” How could he go through an entire debate without mentioning or even hinting at that 47% remark? (**PHOTOS**: [Political Photos of the Week, Sept. 20-27](http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/28/political-pictures-of-the-week-sept-20-27/)) So we now have a race. I don’t know whether this debate will move the polls very much — it may well — but it will certainly boost Romney’s confidence, and it has to give the President some doubts, despite his vaunted self-confidence. I must say that I’ll sleep better knowing Romney opposes banks that are too big to fail (although he didn’t say how) and will regulate Wall Street, eliminate most tax deductions for the wealthy (he put a clever $25,000 or $50,000 cap on deductions) and force insurance companies to cover those with pre-existing conditions (even though he would turn over health policy to the states — how on earth did Obama fail to pick up on that one?). But I must admit, once again, to being mystified. Did the President send out his body double to this debate? Because if that were the actual Barack Obama out there, I’m not sure he could communicate well enough to be an effective President in a time of trouble, to say nothing of winning a second term. **MORE:** [Mark Halperin: Grading the Debaters](http://thepage.time.com/2012/10/03/grading-the-denver-donnybrook/) **MORE:** [Special GOP Issue: Party of No](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2122776,00.html?pcd=magpro) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7184126/the-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7184126/the-debate/"},"headline":"Obama's Debate Strategy: Unilateral Disarmament?","datePublished":"2012-10-04T03:28:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-18T07:27:07.807Z","description":"Well, I'm with all the other talking heads: Mitt Romney won this debate. Barack Obama lost it. I mean, he got his butt kicked. 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