There’s always a lot of talk about likability when it comes to debates and elections overall.
But let me take it one step further. While Romney and Ryan have both done commendable jobs acting like grownups in the debates, the President and the Vice President have both seemed…well… weird. Just weird.
And I think the American people see it. From Biden’s inappropriate laughter, grinning, mugging debate performance to Obama’s sleepy performance in the first debate I think people just saw them as strange.
But last night, was an even stranger Obama performance. The stare. It’s like Obama had pinned his eyelids to his forehead.
This isn’t getting much play and many of the talking heads are talking about Obama winning on points (whatever that means) but I think they’re missing what the American people see. And feel.
Obama just seemed weird.
The media all said that Biden won the debate with Ryan and polls seemed to indicate that. But what was everyone talking about the next morning. The weirdness of that laugh. And now with Obama’s death stare performance last night I’m pretty sure that’s the talk going on right now. What’s with the death stare?
Romney and Ryan by comparison just have to continue acting sane in comparison.
October 23, 2012 at 4:30 pm
I hope they are not "acting" sane.
October 23, 2012 at 4:35 pm
Ha! Good point.
October 23, 2012 at 4:57 pm
You can credit the stare and dilated pupils to drugs. The real "tell" though, was the bad posture.
October 23, 2012 at 6:03 pm
What the American people have seen and understood viscerally is two genuine alpha males and two alpha male wanna be's.
October 23, 2012 at 6:27 pm
My 15 year old son and I watched the debate last night. About half way through, he made the comment that Obama was starting to look like a woman with short hair. He said, "You know, that angry mother look."
Kris
October 23, 2012 at 6:51 pm
If looks could kill…
October 23, 2012 at 7:44 pm
"I'll get you my pretties" "the death stare"
October 23, 2012 at 7:48 pm
The only time he looked @ Gov. Romney is when the Gov was not talking to him or he was not talking to the Gov. O cannot make eye contact when he is telling a whopper cause Mitt can see into his soul.
October 24, 2012 at 1:53 am
@John B: in a monogamous species, any married man with children is an alpha male. His wife is the alpha female.
This is something both liberals and conservatives seldom understand—society is not "the pack", it is a peace-treaty that governs territorial disputes between packs. "The pack" is the nuclear family, the single household, just like it is for wolves.