Brilliant Strategy... or Grabbing Defeat From the Jaw of Victor?

I hate Mitt Romney.

That said...

Was Romney's dismal performance, his refusal to nail Obama, purposeful campaign strategy?

I'm not the average voter. Far from it! Heck... I'm far from the average Republican voter! Does the fact that I had to restrain myself on several occasions from throwing my beer mug through my TV screen necessarily mean that the average American "saw" what I saw?

I know I spent most of the debate cursing Romney for his non-answers... his "me too" answers... his actual friggin' kudos to Obama at times... but if Romney has already reassured the American People in the first two debates that he's the best choice to take the helm and "fix" our economy... well... perhaps by portraying himself as "Obama lite" in terms of foreign policy he connected with enough wary "independents" and undecided voters (in the sense of reassuring them that his policies would pose no threat of even worse international chaos than we already face) to ensure that "fear" of what his presidency would mean in terms of expanded international disasters was lessened.

Hey... perhaps I'm fooling myself, simply trying to put the best face on things, but the truth is... folks like me... Republicans in general... we're sewn up! No matter what Romney says we're voting for him - that's how dangerous we view the possibility of an Obama second term.

Sure... people like me... we can be disgusted by Romney performance tonight - literally sickened by it, by all the lost opportunities that Romney (I'm guessing deliberately) squandered.

But to your "regular Joe," your "regular Jane," did Romney come off as weak... or did he come off as "reasonable"... as "presidential"... as a guy you might trust to have his finger on the button should the shit hit the fan... a guy you'd be comfortable with answering that phone call at 3:00 a.m.?

I could go over the whole debate line by line and slam Romney left and right. (And perhaps tomorrow I'll spend some time doing so!) But what purpose does crying over spilled milk serve? The debate is over. Arguably this was Obama's best performance; unarguably this was Romney's worst.

Folks... I've said it from the beginning! Romney sucks!

The thing is... Obama sucks worse.

Yes... I can mumble to myself about how Gingrich would have simply demolished Obama and his failed foreign policy record... but even assuming that's true (as I do), the simple truth is that a majority of the idiots who make up the Republican primary voter contingent went for Mitt Friggin' Romney and not Newt Gingrich.

I'd welcome the thoughts of others. 

In the meantime... it'll be interesting to see what immediate consensus reaction is tomorrow morning... and... to see how the fact-checking figures into that initial "read" over the following few days.

In the meantime... goodnight.