The Long Game

The first 2012 presidential debate begins in under an hour. Some of the people (or all of the people some of the time) will watch for the information on policy, some will be eager for "moments," their twitter-fingers twitching. But probably for most it's the general impression, based a little on everything (when they switch back from the ball game), that becomes most meaningful.

Because there are lots of deciders and decisions: who do I vote for? Do I vote at all? Am I confident in who I am voting for? Am I voting for the winner? Etc. It should remind us that it's more than a game. There were people waking up today realizing that their Medicaid protection, should they need it, might be gone if Romney prevails.

But yes, this is now a ritual. But it's 90 minutes of unscripted ritual, in which parts may be scripted but the whole is not. Improv.

I believe President Obama sees this as an opportunity to communicate with the American people on what he has done and what he plans to do as President.  He plays a long game, and he's more than suggested that he will be using whatever means become available to communicate and generate public support in his second term for the policies he pursues.  Of course he knows that he must deal with getting reelected, but he knows that contrasting his agenda and his understanding of the realities the country faces with Romney's is also a way of clarifying and communicating what he wants to accomplish.  He'll have an audience, and that process begins tonight.