The Left: Was It Real?

The Daily Debate 10/5/2012

The Left: Was It Real?
-Robert Tracinski

"There's spin, and then there's spin.

Have you ever had something really bad happen and been tempted by the thought that maybe it isn't real, that you'll wake up tomorrow and realize it was all just a bad dream? That's how the left is generally feeling about the first presidential debate, so they have come up with their own version of this idea: that wasn't the "real" Mitt Romney who trounced Obama the other night.

That's coming down directly from the top, from President Obama.
"At a campaign rally in Denver on Thursday, President Obama hit Mitt Romney and said he didn't debate 'the real Mitt Romney' on Wednesday night.

"'The man on stage last night, he does not want to be held accountable for the real Mitt Romney's decisions and what he's been saying for the last year. And that's because he knows full well that we don't want what he's been selling for the last year,' Obama said."
RCP's Alexis Simendinger comes up with an analogy that resonates with anyone who remembers the 1980s.

"When the old television soap opera 'Dallas' realized that killing off a lead character had been a ratings blunder, the invented remedy was to turn the death into a dream. President Obama's post-debate strategizing early Thursday in Denver wandered a little bit down that Southfork road.