Hints of Obama Debate Aggressiveness as Campaign Schedules Post Debate Interviews

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Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:18 am

Need proof ahead of the second presidential debate that the president is ready to go? The Obama campaign has already scheduled debate morning after interviews for Joe Biden on all three networks.

On Wednesday morning, Vice President Biden will be appearing on CBS This Morning, NBC’s Today, and ABC’s Good Morning America.

As Buzzfeed noted, “The pre-booking stands in contrast to the last debate, when the Obama campaign was temporarily shell-shocked by the president’s performance. Aides waited more than 10 minutes to enter the “spin room” in Denver as they formulated a message. The following morning, aides, not high profile surrogates, took to TV.”

This is not the kind of move that an uncertain campaign makes. Some are calling this an act of confidence, but a more accurate term might be aggressiveness. The Obama campaign is not going to let the post-debate narrative get away from them. The president’s campaign seems to be sending the message that they will control the post debate media coverage, and as has been visible all through this campaign, when the Obama team wants to set the narrative, they dominate it.

One of the issues in the first presidential debate was that President Obama used a strategy of making his argument and ignoring his opponent. This ran contrary to what the Obama campaign had done all year. The president’s reelection team has been relentless in defining Romney, and I suspect that this aggressiveness will return tomorrow night.

Obama doesn’t need to confront his opponent, or call him a liar. In fact, this could be the worst strategy that the president could utilize. It is more likely that Obama will be more aggressive and not let Romney lie unchecked. Vice President Biden never confronted Paul Ryan directly, but had a great deal of success by calling out Ryan’s stretching of the truth.

The post vp debate strategy for the Obama campaign has been to call out Romney and Ryan’s dishonesty on the campaign trail at every turn. President Obama will have a chance tomorrow night to tout his own record, and discuss Romney’s character.

For Obama victory in this debate doesn’t mean a different message, but a different tone. The town hall debate format plays well to Obama’s strengths, and could highlight Romney’s difficulties in interacting with Americans who aren’t millionaires.

The Obama campaign may have been shocked by what they saw in the first debate, but it looks like they are ready for Romney this time, and are gearing up to take advantage of a much stronger presidential debate performance.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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