Ayoon Wa Azan (The outcome has been settled in advance)

Today, the first televised debate between President Barack Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney is set to take place. Unless the incumbent president enters the studio drunk and confesses that he is a citizen of Kenya, he will win the race to the White House on the sixth of November. I don’t think he will stumble, so I believe he will most likely win, as I said a month earlier. Barack Obama is a gifted orator, a university professor, and a prominent constitutional expert. He has nerves of steel so he is hardly ever provoked. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is a successful businessman who knows how to promote his merchandise, but we all know that advertisements are almost always better than the goods being advertised. The president could not end the economic crisis that he had inherited from George W. Bush. But he can sincerely say that the Republican-dominated House of Representatives, had blocked all of his plans, and chose to perpetuate the crisis in order to blame it on the president. By contrast, Romney’s policy is to cut taxes for the rich and cut welfare benefits to the poor, and then wage a war on Iran on behalf of his ally the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, because it is impossible for Iran to ever pose a real risk to U.S. security. Recent public opinion polls all put Obama ahead of his rival, with 49 percent against 45 or 44 percent (the rest remain as of yet undecided.) Equally important, these polls show that the president has the lead in several swing states, including Virginia, Ohio and Iowa. To win, a candidate needs 270 votes at the Electoral College, which comprises delegates from each state assigned in accordance with their respective populations. The Associated Press estimated that Obama has 271 votes, while the Bloomberg network gave him so far 217 votes, compared to 191 for Romney. There will be three televised debates between Obama and Romney. After today’s debate, the next one will take place on October 16, while the third one is scheduled for October 22, with a debate between the vice president and his rival on October 11. The first debate will be moderated by Jim Lehrer, the famous American anchor– who has come under attack even before the debate has started, possibly so that the supporters of whoever loses can go on to blame him. Observers agree that the first debate is the most important one, as it will leave 60million viewers with a clear impression about the competences of each candidate. Moreover, early voting has already begun in some states, and will most probably conclude around the same time as the last debate, i.e. two weeks before Election Day. Some forecasts estimate that 35 percent of the Americans have already cast their ballots before the general election on November 6 (elections always take place on the first Tuesday of November.) The potential impact of televised debates on the outcome of the elections explains why the candidates have a great interest in them. The president has had a lot of practice with Sen. John Kerry, who played the role of Mitt Romney in debating with him. Meanwhile, Romney has only practiced debating with his campaign team. We also know that Obama took part in many similar debates in the past, – eight as I recall –, while Romney will be doing his first such debate today. I think that the outcome has been settled in advance. But since I personally want Barack Obama to win, I decided to go over my information, and to examine other people’s views. Yet I arrived at the same result. Indeed, the Republican candidate lost the support of half of the Americans when he said in a leaked footage that 47 percent of the American people were a burden on the government, as though they had chosen not to work. I do not know how Romney can climb out of this hole which he has dug for himself, especially when pitted against his intelligent and well-informed debater. The above reminds me of a day when Ronald Reagan proclaimed that “facts are stupid things.” He was misquoting John Adams, one of the American founding fathers, who said, “Facts are stubborn things.” I eagerly await hearing Romney’s facts, and Obama’s corrections. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.