Nostradumbass climbs onto his soapbox and makes a prediction

Nostradumbass here, ready to make his prediction on tonight's Presidential debate.

As I write this, it is still a couple of hours until the debate.  I'm sitting here in Florida on vacation with my parents.  I have a magnificent view overlooking the beach and the ocean.  Last night, I watched a couple get married right down there on the beach in front of our condo.  If I had been smart enough to charge my videocamera and/or brought my charger with me, I would have some pictures for you.  As it is, I only have the pictures that I took from about 14 floors away, which is kind of far away from the action.  I was also distracted by a couple of girls in bikinis on the side of the pool. 

But that's neither here nor there.  Let's talk about the debate tonight.

Let me preface this with the caveat that I have no special knowledge as to how each candidate has made his preparation for the debate.  I can only give you the lessons that I have learned from my own experience.

As I see it, Romney holds the psychological edge going into this debate.  The first reason I think that is, obviously, the trouncing that he gave in the first debate.  That is a huge psychological boost whenever you are in these kinds of situations.  It took a lot of confidence to walk into that situation in the first place.  Imagine how much more confident Romney must have become walking out of a debate in which he, to use the current vernacular, made Obama his bitch.

On the flip side, what would such a performance have done to Obama?  By one account that I have read, Obama walked out of that debate thinking that he had won, and handily.  It was only the day later that his staff let him know that he had not.  Now what does that do to one's confidence?

Completely deflates it, that's what it does.  Even for someone of Obama's self-confidence stature, that is quite a blow to the image of self-worth. 

So now Obama must play catch-up.  He's got to realize that people see him as, if not behind, then at least not as far ahead in the race as he once was.  Another performance like that, and he will definitely be seen as being behind. 

The problem with that thinking is that that puts a lot of pressure on Obama to perform well.  I don't know about you, but I don't perform well when there's pressure on me to perform well.  Nobody performs well when they are aware of the pressure put on them to perform well.  The only way that that pressure dissipates is when the performer puts that awareness aside, and focuses solely on performing to the best of their ability.  It is only when they are loose and not pressured that they perform best.   

So the pressure is now on Obama to have a great debate.  Nothing less than great will be acceptable.

If anybody can rise to the occasion, I think it would be Obama.  Not because I think he performs well while under pressure.  I think that the default position of Obama is that he truly does think that he is the best there is at what he does, and nobody else can come close to him.  I think he has been told how special he is all of his life, and nobody has ever had the temerity to tell him otherwise.  This leads to a huge amount in his self-worth bank.   

So the prediction from Nostradumbass is this: 
1)  Romney will turn in another strong debate performance. 
2)  Obama will be stronger than he was, but there will still be some people who will be disappointed in his performance. 
3)  The liberal media will tell us that Obama was the stronger of the two, but Romney lied about some things, distorted his record on others, and flip-flopped on his previously held positions. 
4)  The undecideds will remain undecided, because they are too stupid and/or lazy and/or incurious to chase down the lies told by Obama. 
5)  The people who barely pay attention to politics until this time of the year will take notice of how strong Romney is, and compare it to the image that has been painted by Democratic mouthpieces and the media (but I repeat myself), and discover who has been lying to them. 
6)  Republicans will discover that there are more Republicans and conservatives in America than there were before.

As a side note: I was listening to a few liberal stations on SiriusXM stations during the conventions (you are welcome for that sacrifice, by the way), and they truly believe that Obama -and themselves, by extension- are really better than us conservatives.  As such, Obama should have walked into that debate hall and mopped the floor with Romney, all without breaking a sweat.  But now, reality has slapped them in the face, and they realize that this is a struggle.  Obama MUST defeat those dumb conservatives, otherwise their world makes no sense. 

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