Northwest Indiana Discussion

When President Barack Obama stepped off the stage in Denver last week the 60 million Americans watching the debate against Mitt Romney already knew it had been a disaster for him.

But what nobody knew, until now, was that Obama believed he had actually won.

In an extraordinary insight into the events leading up to the 90 minute showdown which changed the face of the election, a Democrat close to the Obama campaign today reveals that the President also did not take his debate preparation seriously, ignored the advice of senior aides and ignored one-liners that had been prepared to wound Romney.

The Democrat said that Obama’s inner circle was dismayed at the ‘disaster’ and that he believed the central problem was that the President was so disdainful of Romney that he didn’t believe he needed to engage with him.

‘President Obama made it clear he wanted to be doing anything else – anything – but debate prep,’ the Democrat said. ‘He kept breaking off whenever he got the opportunity and never really focused on the event.

your boy lied.

VP DEBATE PREP: HIGH STAKES FOR THE UNDERCARD – M.M. moderated a discussion at the University Club in NYC last night featuring Robert Gibbs, senior Obama campaign advisor, and Karen Hughes, former top Bush administration official. We asked each panelist if they had to advise the opposing party’s VP candidate, what would they say? After much joking, Gibbs suggested Ryan should be Ryan, going into unapologetic detail on his well-formed policy views on government spending and entitlements. Gibbs described Rep. Paul Ryan as the intellectual heart of the party and said he should own that role.

The advice is partly self-serving (Gibbs thinks people will recoil at Ryan’s policies). But it’s also heartfelt: If you try to be someone you aren’t in debates, you generally look phony and fail. Hughes, after rooting for some famous Joe Biden gaffes, also said Biden should be Biden: relatable and genuinely concerned about the plight of, pardon the phrase, the average Joe. If both follow this advice, it should be a very interesting night. … Our other favorite line from last night was Gibbs, asked for his general reaction to the first presidential debate: “Five minutes in, I thought, ‘Oh s**t.’” Gibbs promised a very different Obama in rounds II and III.

President Obama’s distaste for debate preparation may be mitigated by the location his current tutorial, the fabulous Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg Virginia, featuring stunning scenery, deluxe accommodations, and three championship golf courses.

A portion of the tab for this luxury is of course being picked up by taxpayers, who largely footed the bill to fly Obama down there aboard Air Force One and house his White House retinue in Williamsburg for three nights. Presumably many of his aides, including a large security detail, are at the hotel itself.

Exactly why Obama needed to be training for his debate at the Kingsmill Resort instead of the White House or Camp David is unclear.

Our country is only as strong as the character of our people and the service of those both civilian and military who represent us around the globe.

No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done.

'acts of terror'

The moderator in Tuesday night's presidential debate, after appearing to side with President Obama on the question of whether he called the Libya strike a terror attack from the start, conceded afterward that Mitt Romney was "right" on the broader point -- that the administration for days insisted it was a spontaneous act.

"He was right in the main. I just think he picked the wrong word," Candy Crowley said of Romney on CNN shortly after the debate ended.

Crowley was referring to the tense exchange in the final half-hour of the debate, when Romney questioned whether Obama had called the attack an "act of terror" rather than "spontaneous" violence that grew out of a protest against an anti-Islam video.

Crowley then intervened. Here's the exchange:

ROMNEY: I think (it's) interesting the president just said something which -- which is that on the day after the attack he went into the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror.

OBAMA: That's what I said.

ROMNEY: You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you're saying?

OBAMA: Please proceed governor.

ROMNEY: I want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.

OBAMA: Get the transcript.

CROWLEY: It -- it -- it -- he did in fact, sir ... call it an act of terror.

Click for the full debate transcript.

Obama, indicating he thought he had just gotten a boost from the moderator, then chimed in: "Can you say that a little louder, Candy?"

However, Obama didn't explicitly label the Benghazi strike terrorism in those Sept. 12 remarks. What he did say is: "No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation."

Crowley, during and following the debate, pointed out that despite Obama's Sept. 12 remarks his administration was peddling a different story to the public. She said it took two weeks for officials to say more definitively that the attack was more than an out-of-control protest.

And she continued to clarify on CNN that Romney was making a legitimate point.

"Right after that I did turn around and say, 'but you are totally correct that they spent two weeks telling us that this was about a tape'," she said.

In 2009, America Installed the program Obama. Unfortunately it appeared to contain malware or defective programming. Now we are rectifying this problem:

UNINSTALLING OBAMA.....…………….

█████████████▒▒▒ 80% complete.

Prepare to Restart Economy