Forget the debate hype. It's Obama's to lose, not Romney's to win

Slick sales people do what they have to do in order to win over a potential customer.  The slickest of them all, like Mitt Romney or Karl Rove, do it really well through Bullshit.

It is "Bullshit" and not "bullshit" because I am referring to Professor Frankfurt's charming little book, where he makes a wonderful point that the truth is not of concern to the bullshitter.  The bullshitter simply says whatever will work for the moment, and cares not where the truth is.  A liar, as Frankfurt noted, has respect for the truth and knows what the truth is, and fights to make sure that the truth shall not be revealed.  Frankfurt observed that in the age of marketing--products or candidates, it doesn't matter--we bullshit when we want to market it.  Full disclosure is not what we engage in when we want to market anything.

I doubt that Romney's and the GOP's bullshit alone can win over the few voters who are not already firmly in the blue or red corners.  And given that the presidential election is decided not by popular vote alone, but by winning a majority of electoral votes, well, we need to keep track of the probable electoral vote distribution between these two candidates.

The Economist (yes, that damned Socialist newspaper from Europe!) projects 285 to 253 in favor of Obama:

Over at the New Yorker, John Cassidy gives Obama an even larger margin (assuming a split in the tossups):

Cassidy notes:

Everything now depends on whether Romney can sustain his momentum. In 2004, John Kerry got a similar bounce—about four or five points in the national polls—after a strong performance in the first debate, but his surge didn’t last very long. It is possible that Romney’s bounce will meet the same fate. Indeed, there is some preliminary evidence to suggest that this is already happening.

I disagree with Cassidy: it does not depend on whether Romney can sustain the momentum, but whether Obama will keeping throwing it away.  

If you are so inclined, watch the debates and enjoy the theatrics there.  I have better things to do--like grading assignments, going for walks, cooking, laundry ... in other words, my life!

BTW, it doesn't mean that Obama doesn't Bullshit.  All politicians all do. And they are all honourable men, indeed!