Good Television

Yes, it is true, the first Romney-Obama debate invigorated us GOPers.  The Romney Campaign has been pursuing a simple, low-key strategy all along, which has been:  present Mitt as the competent alternative.  This was successfully done during the GOP Convention.  It was executed magnificently last night.  The plan will continue during the remaining debates, including the Veep forum one week from today.  If the Democrats think tonight was bad, wait until Ryan gets a hold of Biden.

But in the words of Charles Krauthammer, a former clinical psychiatrist, "I don't expect [the President] to hold back next time" (I paraphrase).  I don't either.  However, what I do expect - and this is why this tired, old Republican hack is excited - is for Romney to do what he's been doing and doing well for the past 5 1/2 years:  debate.  He will rebut every false premise and falsehood Obama utters.  If Obama is more forceful with prepped soundbites, Romney will deflate them.  There is nowhere to hide.

Romney was downright thrilling last night because he provided so many things that Republican candidates - any candidate - have been lacking for so long:  substance.  He was a master of facts and figures without being boring.  He was energetic without being hyper.  He was heartfelt without that sweaty, fake passion that  others try to muster up.  He was sharp.  He was, in short, a good Republican.

But what Romney accomplished last night was something far greater than just winning an important debate.  For one key moment early on, he actually captured the voice of the American people.  Jim Lehrer - who I am surprised hasn't been hung in effigy outside the White House yet, and was generally horrible - asked Romney to ask the President what he wanted to ask him about the economy.  In one of those defining moments that Presidential campaigns are made of, Romney was the frustrated voice of the hard-working enterprise class, the folks in the country who "get it."  He never lost my attention afterward.

Equally important was that, really for the first time, Americans saw that Obama and all Democrats absolutely don't get it.  The heart of the debate last night was about getting the economy moving.  Every domestic issue is tied into that.  It is true that the best economy is a spending economy, as my high school economics teacher drilled into us.  But where Democrats are lost on this principle is on just who the spender really is and should be.  They seize upon somewhat isolated examples of the past (wars, the Great Society, the Clinton years, etc.) as the proper way to stimulate an economy.  In their pseudo-economic way of thinking, they believe the household is the central economic unit.  This is incorrect.  The reality is that businesspeople - not households - are the true spenders.  They spend on hiring, which then in turn stimulates the household.  Obama doesn't understand this at all, and he said so in so many words last night.  Romney does, and has the street cred to prove it.

Recently, the Dallas Morning News endorsed Governor Romney as a "Chamber of Commerce Republican."  I couldn't agree more.  There's a world title in his future if, like the Rangers, he can keep it up.