Two days following the first presidential debate, the Portland Press Herald ran an editorial headlined “Romney’s tax claims in debate don’t add up” (Our View, Oct. 5).

Generally, in debates, it is conceded that rhetoric from both sides is often distorted and skewed to support one’s own arguments. One questions why the Press Herald would cite only one candidate’s statement and use headlines that lead to the assumption that the other candidate (President Obama) spoke with nothing but truth.

One unanimous fact, supported by pundits of all sides, did unfold, and that was that Romney won the first debate.

If you observe children’s interactions, younger kids with little sophistication will often respond with childish, immature ineptitudes, especially when faced with the argument and logic of an older child. I must tell the “journalists” of the Press Herald that the previously described childish comeback was evoked from your Our View opinion.

And your metaphor of the Etch-A-Sketch solidified the undignified, childlike aura emanating from your editorial. Surely, with so many monumental crises facing our country, the Press Herald must be aware that this one issue is merely the tip of a giant iceberg that Obama has not tended to for the past four years.

Jim Lehrer has been criticized for “letting the debate get away from him,” when in fact the format and handling by Lehrer allowed for more open discussion and actual challenge.

The result revealed Obama outprepared, outknowledged and outclassed. Romney was allowed to be the intelligent, knowledgeable, well-spoken candidate that he is, and Obama was found out to not fit the contrived image of his admiring media, while also displaying impotence without his teleprompter.

Obama’s political ads have offered the childlike retort of “Liar, liar,” but I would guess that after the Oct. 3 debate, Obama wished he could have erased his own Etch-A-Sketch.

Robert J. Sbrilli is a resident of Freeport.

 

Copy the Story Link