The spin machine must be cranked up to max in Chicago and Washington. As the focus is shifting to the debates, the Democrats theme is that Mitt has had more practice and is fairly good at debating. (Gibbs, Messina, Axelrod et al) So the White House appears to be parsing expectations for Obama, at least the first debate – domestic issues.

“Gov. Romney is a very skilled debater,” said Obama campaign manager Jim Messina. His boss, by contrast, is long and windy, “so clearly the governor has the advantage.” — exactly what Gibbs said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/22/debates-obama-camp-downplays-expectations-romney-looks-for-game-changer/#ixzz27LUvCA12

I saw a consensus among Dem operatives pointing out Romney has done a lot of debate prep already and playing down the abilities of Obama. What reason could they have for patting Mitt on the back? It’s about winning and losing, just like the election. Hedging his bets. If debates don’t go well, Obama can dismiss them as irrelevant: “What really matters is the election”, they’ll say. Is that his strategy, to discount the relevance of debates as overblown?

If the media does not spoon-feed Obamessiah a victory: first declare it anyway, then they redefine the weight of debates. He’s usurped everything else he can get his hands on, so why not the debate process too? Thereby try to deprive Republicans of any claim of victory.

Or basically, just what you would expect from a self-serving jackass.

What Debates?

October 3, 2012
Topic: Domestic policy Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: University of Denver in Denver, Colorado (Tickets)
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney
Moderator: Jim Lehrer (Host of NewsHour on PBS)

The debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate.

The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.

http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012-debate-schedule/2012-presidential-debate-schedule/

1st debate – Domestic Policy (Lehrer)
VP debate – Foreign and Domestic Policy
2nd debate – Town Hall: questions foreign and domestic policy (Crowley)
3rd debate – Foreign Policy (Schieffer)