Will Romney mention the Drudge Report about Obama in the debate?

[LiberalJunkie]

Discuss.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Mentioning it seems like the only way it survives in this week's news cycle since there seems to be no other reason to introduce it to the news media the day before the first presidential debate unless you're a complete idiot.

[wildfood]

No...Romney is desperate and will even claim that trees are the perfect height, but if he does reference the Drudge video people will only ask, "Huh?"

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I think Obama could easily swat it away if it is brought up... plus it'll look like Romney is race-baiting, which won't help his cause with moderates and Independents...

[Eraserhead]

We can hope (but I doubt it).

[minionofmidas]

They've been walking a fine line on the subtle racism front, and the candidate talking this nonentity up himself would be violating that line.
Then again, it's not as the strategy has been working so far, so who knows. Maybe they think escalation is their only hope. The timing looks it - though that's supposing they actually had a hand in that.

[Politico]

If all of the news networks report it tonight, Obama will be asked about it because viewers will be left wondering after watching the news tonight. However, it may not be worthy of being broadcast by the networks, so who knows?

Romney will not need to bring it up. Romney is willing to do a lot, but race baiting and gay bashing are out of bounds for him.

[Torie]

If I were a debate moderator I would just ask Obama when was the most recent time he used an affected accent before a black audience, and whether or not he is practicing on an Hispanic accent to use before brown audiences, and if so, would he please use it now so we could measure that progress.

[ajb]

If I were a debate moderator I would just ask Obama when was the most recent time he used an affected accent before a black audience, and whether or not he is practicing on an Hispanic accent to use before brown audiences, and if so, would he please use it now so we could measure that progress.

And, in the interest of bipartisanship, we may as well ask Romney the same question.

[Politico]

If I were a debate moderator I would just ask Obama when was the most recent time he used an affected accent before a black audience, and whether or not he is practicing on an Hispanic accent to use before brown audiences, and if so, would he please use it now so we could measure that progress.

Seriously?

I may have to actually view the video after seeing your post. I thought this was just another harmless video being blown out of proportion...

[Torie]

If I were a debate moderator I would just ask Obama when was the most recent time he used an affected accent before a black audience, and whether or not he is practicing on an Hispanic accent to use before brown audiences, and if so, would he please use it now so we could measure that progress.

And, in the interest of bipartisanship, we may as well ask Romney the same question.

Has Mittens been caught affecting an accent? I tend to doubt it because Mittens really sucks as an actor. That is one reason he kind of sucks as a candidate. The two go hand in hand.

[Politico]

I just saw the video. It just shows how full of [Inks] Obama is. Everybody knew that already, though, right? At least now we know who gave Joe "Put Y'All Back in Chains" Biden his faux accent lessons...

More interestingly, at least for us political junkies, how did this not come to light four years ago, especially during the Jeremiah Wright nonsense? Where did this come from? And what else did not come out four years ago? What's next?

[© tweed]

no he'll just constantly allude to the underlying concept

[opebo]

How can I see this video?

Wait, I just found it.. as far as I could see he spoke with only a very slightly increased 'african american' accent.. and most talked about God and Jesus.  

To be honest I don't get how this video is 'damaging'.  Is this the video's link? http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/02/obama-speech-jeremiah-wright-new-orleans

[Averroës Nix]

Absolutely not, and he's probably hoping that Lehrer doesn't either. Not an easy thing for Romney to respond to without making some kind of damaging misstatement.

[Likely Voter]

There is no way he will mention it. However, Romney will do what he has always been doing, which is to talk about "entitlement culture" and "welfare" "food stamps" "government handouts".  etc. Being that the campaign is explicitly trying to win the election by winning 61% of the white vote, you can connect the dots.

[GMantis]

There is no way he will mention it. However, Romney will do what he has always been doing, which is to talk about "entitlement culture" and "welfare" "food stamps" "government handouts".  etc. Being that the campaign is explicitly trying to win the election by winning 61% of the white vote, you can connect the dots.

It's not as if they have any other choice. And this thing can be effective in a number of swing states.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Absolutely not, and he's probably hoping that Lehrer doesn't either. Not an easy thing for Romney to respond to without making some kind of damaging misstatement.

Romney's not worried about that. This is Jim Lehrer. Lehrer only agreed to do the debate again this year because the format they offered him would allow in-depth discussion of substantive issues.

[Eraserhead]

If all of the news networks report it tonight, Obama will be asked about it because viewers will be left wondering after watching the news tonight. However, it may not be worthy of being broadcast by the networks, so who knows?

Romney will not need to bring it up. Romney is willing to do a lot, but race baiting and gay bashing are out of bounds for him.

Wait, aren't you the guy who told us that Romney needs to bring up the "Obamaphone" video during the debate?

[knyphausen]

I don't think he will and, if he does, it will probably backfire.

[ajb]

If all of the news networks report it tonight, Obama will be asked about it because viewers will be left wondering after watching the news tonight. However, it may not be worthy of being broadcast by the networks, so who knows?

Romney will not need to bring it up. Romney is willing to do a lot, but race baiting and gay bashing are out of bounds for him.

Wait, aren't you the guy who told us that Romney needs to bring up the "Obamaphone" video during the debate?

Oh, but that wasn't going to be racist, because of course the audience at home understood that the woman in the video just happened to be black, while the majority of the program's beneficiaries are white.

[The Mikado]

I just saw the video. It just shows how full of [Inks] Obama is. Everybody knew that already, though, right? At least now we know who gave Joe "Put Y'All Back in Chains" Biden his faux accent lessons...

More interestingly, at least for us political junkies, how did this not come to light four years ago, especially during the Jeremiah Wright nonsense? Where did this come from? And what else did not come out four years ago? What's next?

Isn't this the point where Politico comes in and says "bringing up stuff that happened almost half a decade ago reeks of desperation, the American people are concerned about the future and not something that happened years ago" etc?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I just saw the video. It just shows how full of [Inks] Obama is. Everybody knew that already, though, right? At least now we know who gave Joe "Put Y'All Back in Chains" Biden his faux accent lessons...

More interestingly, at least for us political junkies, how did this not come to light four years ago, especially during the Jeremiah Wright nonsense? Where did this come from? And what else did not come out four years ago? What's next?

Isn't this the point where Politico comes in and says "bringing up stuff that happened almost half a decade ago reeks of desperation, the American people are concerned about the future and not something that happened years ago" etc?

I'm more concerned with the fact that Politico can't tell the difference between faux accents and code-switching.

[stegosaurus]

I think Obama could easily swat it away if it is brought up... plus it'll look like Romney is race-baiting, which won't help his cause with moderates and Independents...

Considering the contents of the video in question, it would be quite Orwellian to suggest that it's Romney doing the race baiting by bringing this up. Does Barack Obama still believe that for racist unknown reasons they don't care about the people down in New Orleans as much, because they didn't get their Stafford Act money? Does Obama care to define "they"? Does Obama believe that some sort of financial reparations need to be made by the misc. "they" to the downtrodden New Orleans residents who said "they" do not like as much? Why did Obama use an exaggerated dialect to address an all black crowd? If Obama and co. feel these are innocuous sentiments, why not defend the statements instead of attacking Romney/Drudge/FOX News for bringing them to light?

Spin it how you like, but the President has questions that need answered regarding these comments. Obama gave a very racially tinged speech to an all black crowd, in an exaggerated black dialect, where he suggested that "they" don't care about the black people in New Orleans. That is race baiting. Questioning the meaning of what he said is not.

[Maxwell]

Bringing up the video would seriously hurt Romney because a lot of people would just point that back to him trying to rally the Republican base, and it would turn some moderates away.