ENGL: 450 October 8th Post

 The presidential debate was chalked full of different kinds of rhetoric that we have covered over the semester thus far. In particular, enthymemes were used in abundance to drill home ides without saying them outright.  Obama talked about different subjects that pointed to how rich Romney was without saying it upfront, this developed different ideas in the audience’s minds without forcing these ideas down their throats. Romney also used different enthymemes to plant certain ideas into American’s minds. He talked a lot about the economy and how it needed to be fixed, but he never said outright that Obama was a bad economist. Certainly though if Americans believed every word he said about Obama and the economy, then they would have had to believe it was Obamas fault. 

Throughout the entire debate it seemed Mitt was the aggressor and Obama just didn’t want to be there. Its possible Obama was watching all the news coverage before the debate and believed this to be a win before the debate even started. Romney (already debated multiple times this year) seemed to be pressing the moderator and Obama equally, almost as if he was on a mission to show America he was serious and Obama was a joke. This was surprising because typically Obama has been an extremely smart debater; he showed this in the last election.

"It looked like Romney wanted to be there and President Obama didn't want to be there," noted Democratic strategist and CNN contributor James Carville. "The president didn't bring his 'A' game."

            With that said neither candidate really secured any noticeable lead in the race from this debate, but nearly 67% of international voters believed Romney won while Obama only received 25% of the popular vote. This came as a surprise as most people thought Obama would have had this in the bag because of the vast history he has in debating and politics.

            I did find it interesting how moderator Jim Lehrer had almost no control over the two candidates in terms of the debates direction and time frame. I wonder if this is some kind of rhetoric being used by the two candidates? It did end up having great affect on the eventual plot of the debate.