Thursday, October 04, 2012

Comeback for Obama Smarts

I feel like Holly Hunter today. I wonder if Barack Obama does, too.

As a know-it-all in “Broadcast News,” Hunter is accused, “It must be nice to always feel you’re the smartest person in the room.” With a stricken look, she answers, “No, it’s awful.”

Looking back, pre-debate qualms about the President’s performance make me feel bad, not prescient. Too much is at stake for that.

“The man on stage last night doesn’t want to be held accountable for the real Mitt Romney,” a reenergized Obama tells crowds today. “He knows full well that we don’t want what he’s been selling for the last year. If you want to be president, you owe the American people the truth.”

In the debate, the President disdained to practice what Hunter in the movie called “remedial reporting,” but that’s exactly what’s required to offset the serial lies Romney has zestfully embraced in the spirit of his running mate Paul Ryan.

What Barack Obama must do in coming days is summon up the kind of country wisdom his beloved Midwestern grandmother must have passed on. “Never get into a pissing contest with a skunk,” the saying goes.

But if you can’t avoid it, Mr. President, aim high and true. Your grandmother could have told you that.

So could Holly Hunter.

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