Will The Real Barack Obama Please Stand Up?

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Written By:
Rob Port

Oct 3, 2012
10:39pm

I’m not much into declaring winners and losers in debates any more so I’m not going to go there. If you’re into it, there does seem to be a surprising amount of bi-partisan agreement that Romney won in a landslide, and the polling agrees:

This, too:

But setting all that aside, what struck me was Obama’s delivery tonight. He seemed hesitant. Lethargic. There were a lot of “uh’s” and “um’s” and overall the performance was not at all crisp. Andrew Sullivan, who admits to being an ardent Obama supporter, used words like “meandering,” “weak,” and “effete” to describe Obama’s performance.

Here’s a taste, if you missed it, of Obama talking about the proper role of government:

What interests me is how that performance contrasts with the 2007 Hampton University speech that was recently brought to light in which President Obama declares America a racist country, among other things.

Ask yourself, which Obama looks more comfortable? Was is it the one on stage with Romney defending his track record as president and trying to sell himself to the American people for another 4 year term? Or was it the 2007 Obama who knew he was ought of the limelight and was trashing this country with fire and brimstone?