Debate bias

I like Obama.  What can I say?  You can give me all kinds of reasons to think otherwise, but I’m betting I’ve heard them and they haven’t worked.  So when I watch a spectacle like last night’s second round of the Presidential Debate season, I’m not really coming to the event with an open mind.  I’m biased.  Here’s the thing, though.  I think Obama’s earned it.

Romney could have earned it.  He’s had six years and he was once the kind of moderate Republican I admired.  The mind-your-business kind.  Now he’s not.  Obama, on the other hand, has become the kind of moderate Republican I admired.  The practical, thoughtful, mind-your-business kind.  I think if more Republicans pulled out of the groupthink and were honest with themselves, if they could divorce themselves from the ‘us against them’ philosophy that drives much America’s political culture (or American culture, period) they would realize this guy is not an alien socialist sleeper-cell agent. 

All of which made last night’s debate interesting.  Romney says, given the ingredients of last four years, he would’ve made better sauce.  Perhaps.  We’ll never know, ‘cuz there’s no such thing as a do-over.  The next four years are going to bring new set of challenges.  Watching the candidates deal with surprise questions, unscripted responses and each other, I simply liked Obama better.  I was not born leaning his way.  He’s pulled me over.