Romney Campaign Memo: Obama Is a Master Debater, Will Probably Win Next Week Because Voters Think He's Better
With the first of three presidential debates still a few days away, Mitt Romney's campaign is already calling a winner: President Obama.
In a memo to "interested parties", Romney senior adviser Beth Myers lauds the president as "one of the most talented political communicators in modern history," and claims he has an unfair edge over his GOP rival because "this will be the eighth one-on-one presidential debate of his political career" and Mitt Romney's first.
Don't expect "issues and the facts," which "Governor Romney has...on his side" to help the Republican nominee, Myers tells the surrogates. Obama, again, is unjustly advantaged because "voters already believe – by a 25-point margin – that President Obama is likely to do a better job in these debates."
Myers continues: "Given President Obama's natural gifts and extensive seasoning under the bright lights of the debate stage, this is unsurprising."
Read the rest of the memo below:
But what must President Obama overcome? His record. Based on the campaign he's run so far, it's clear that President Obama will use his ample rhetorical gifts and debating experience to one end: attacking Mitt Romney. Since he won't – and can't – talk about his record, he'll talk about Mitt Romney. We fully expect a 90-minute attack ad aimed at tearing down his opponent. If President Obama is as negative as we expect, he will have missed an opportunity to let the American people know his vision for the next four years and the policies he'd pursue. That's not an opportunity Mitt Romney will pass up. He will talk about the big choice in this election – the choice between President Obama's government-centric vision and Mitt Romney's vision for an opportunity society with more jobs, higher take-home pay, a better-educated workforce, and millions of Americans lifted out of poverty into the middle class.
This election will not be decided by the debates, however. It will be decided by the American people. Regardless of who comes out on top in these debates, they know we can't afford another four years like the last four years. And they will ultimately choose a better future by electing Mitt Romney to be our next president.
Tl;dr: President Obama will win the debates and successfully convince Americans Mitt Romney would not make a good alternative, but Americans will magically ignore this and vote for Mitt Romney anyway.
[photos via AP]