BBC Radio Four’s Today Show described last night’s Presidential debate in terms of “the body language, the appearance, the theater…,” and of course I’m inclined to agree. I’m also inclined to think that anyone who fell for Mitt Romney’s wily-eyed Jack Lemmon impersonation is a sucker. Romney’s performance was straight out of one of those 1930s handbooks on how to give an effective pep talk. And he wasn’t even convincing, since he couldn’t hide that hideous smirk of his. He was the dapper villain from a melodrama who couldn’t
Meanwhile, Obama gets lambasted by suckered pundits for being—what? Realistic? Presidential? Obama had a more relaxed posture. He didn’t speak in punchlines. His ad libs sounded genuine, as when he told Romney that the Republican’s dubious vow of bipartisanism was a dream if he planned to kill Obamacare on his first day in office. (The President also interjected that he’d ‘become fond’ of the term Obamacare. What a delightful character note.)
That’s a theater critic’s opinion, and, honestly, there’s nobody who doesn’t accept these debates as mere theater exercises. Otherwise, the candidates would have white boards and pointers for their presentations, and the TV networks would be dressing up the coverage with learned scholarship rather than tweets from celebrities.
What makes these debates more than just a vaudevillian double act is the fact that no casting director in their right mind would line up these performers against each other on the same stage. That’s what makes it a debate and not a Neil Simon revival—these two squabblers are actually different people with different styles.
and last night’s was one of the most substantial any two political candidates have had on the national level in years. Pity that so many couldn’t disconnect from the dramatic aspects. Guess it takes a guy who goes to theater for a living to do that.
Romney won on artifice. If the Kennedy/Nixon debate was about grooming and the Biden/Palin debate was about situation comedy (see the sparks fly when this laughable pair square off on national TV!), this one was about contrasting styles of acting.
What it reminded me of most was the misbegotten film version of Guys and Dolls. Romney was being the snappy, pushy Sky Masterson as essayed by Marlon Brando. Obama was Frank Sinatra’s laidback Nathan Detroit. Not a show I need revived. But I’m eager to see Obama engage in another four-year run, while Romney gets relegated to the straw hat circuit.