well The 2012 national election is now a jump ball. The Clinton convention bounce is gone and then some. Whether Obama or Biden can effectively counteract Romney's new persona is an unknown. Romney has now established himself as the father figure and Obama as a kid who doesn't know how to defend himself and people are wondering if Obama has just been out of his league all along. It has been suggested that Romney was channeling his own father during the actual debate. I doubt that Barack Obama would have achieved much by channeling his father, and therein might lie the difference between his performance and Romney's.

Complicating Obama's re-election chances is the vulnerability his administration faces concerning the tragedy in Libya and the handling of communications in the aftermath. For obvious reasons Clinton can't contribute much to Obama on the Libya question---was there enough security?  

Aside from Clinton, and perhaps Joe Biden, Colin Powell is the father figure who can potentially give Obama a lift. Across a wide swath of out culture Powell is considered to be objective so his opinions matter a great deal. The question is---will he endorse Obama again? My feeling is that if he doesn't endorse Obama, we may well have a Romney Presidency and gunboat diplomacy. 

All political commentary is projection but my view is that most of the analysis of last week's debate misses the point that Romney established himself as a father figure, one who is in control when the situation demands it. I think Obama's problems stem from the lack of a father in his life. A father is the person who teaches a man how to stand up for himself. It is even being reported that Obama didn't know he was getting beat up---and I'm not sure a father can teach a man that but it is probably true that a man may be less willing to get into a fight if he doesn't have a father in the background.

I remember my father walking over to a neighbor's house with a very large monkey wrench in the back pocket of his coveralls and I never learned the details but it so happened that the neighbor never again called the cops when he might have thought that my sister and I, grade school level, were being just a little bit too noisy. Well, that was one of my few father-taking-care-of-business lessons and fortunately I have not had cause to use it. Obama needs to show that he has limits. He needs to have a metaphorical monkey wrench in his back pocket.   

Tied inextricably to Romney's new persona is the lack of objectivity in our divided political culture. When Romney can with impunity say something as absurd as, "No economist can say I have a tax cut if I say I don't", you know that this election has not been and never will be based upon issues and facts . If there is no supra-father figure who can say that Romney's statement is ludicrous, the father figure who does remain standing is the arbiter. Right now that "father" is Romney himself. I wouldn't count on the likes of Blitzer, Gregory or even Candy Crowley to interject objectivity---and in fact, they just provide a platform for further obfuscation. The absence of any agreed upon facts is the underlying problem of this election. There is no objective and strong father to be the arbiter---well, there is a guy named Romney. 

When Romney used the quip about raising five sons so effectively you have to conclude that his handlers are good and they asked the right question. "How do you destroy Obama's character while proving that Romney is the man, the father figure, who should be in charge of the country'? While Obama's team is retooling they might want to re-define their objectives and then ask themselves the right technical questions. It's like product development. If you keep asking the right question, the answers will eventually come to you. I think the question is, "What do we need do to compensate for the perception that Obama has a lack of resolve as the father who needs to use gut instinct to take care of business when things got out of hand?"  

Undercutting Romney's newly minted persona as a father figure is important. The best route is to show that he is insincere in his overall presentation of who he is. In attacking him,  a good axiom might be, "It's not about issues, it's about Romney's character flaw beneath the issue." 

While my father had moments of effectiveness, he was mostly absent---except when he wasn't. One time I took a licking twice in one day---once by Tony Gianelli who was twice my size, and then a second time when my father came home, heard about the fight, and didn't think I fought back hard enough. One forgives one's parents, especially a father who was born on a dirt floored cabin in Appalachia. I was careful not to repeat the spanking stuff and what I learned about being a father I picked up along the way. 

Obviously Obama has a strong parental persona in his own family. He needs to project it more. I think he needs to counteract Romney's five sons analogy with something from his own experience as a father. The subject of women's rights comes to mind. I would like to hear Obama use Romney 's parental analogy, turn it against Romney, and show Romney what cold revenge looks like.

I don't think the President needs to be punished for losing. What he needs to understand is that Mitt Romney may be a good family man along one dimension, but in the larger context he is an unpredictable and selfish person who has gotten his way in life through shape shifting, telling people what they want to hear, and walking away with the prize. This time around it is not just the employees of a Bain acquisition who lose, but the entire middle class.

What I would say to the President is to do his homework and pick Romney's character apart piece by piece. Each line of attack should have a hierarchy of weapons; otherwise Romney will just repeat himself and Obama will just seem repetitive.  Each follow-up should have new information.  Depth, not the scattershot of Romney, is the vital force. He should ignore the stupid things that Romney has said---things like, "choosing contraceptives is like choosing which color to paint your car." No one is listening at that level. People want to know which father to trust.

Ahh, projection....

...or maybe the search for a Savior---or for the cavalry to arrive in time to save a floundering Obama campaign.

I don't know whether or not Colin Powell will endorse Obama this time around. I do suspect that the prospect of John Bolton as Secretary of State or Defense might be unpalatable to him. Powell is perhaps the one person who can put the Benghazi consulate attack into perspective. Certainly the blundering of Romney and the crass politics being played around the deaths of our public servants might repulse him. I listened to a recent interview of Powell's Chief of Staff, Wilkerson. In reference to Romney and his "foreign policy" team he succinctly stated, "These people make me sick."  Colonel Wilkerson's opinions on the lack of military service in the Romney family was memorable. Obama can't say it but the appropriate spokesman could.  

In any case, as an important and objective father figure, I hope Powell will consider the vastly trigger happy and inexperienced Romney to be a threat to our interests abroad and his militarism in general to be a threat to our own economy. I hope that he will support the President once again.   

I try to channel my Dad sometimes. He was a raw-boned Kentucky man who reinvented himself and there were things I didn't know until it was too late to ask about. For example, he was not an overtly religious man and I didn't know until his death when some black ministers came to his service that he had made some large contributions to their churches. What I am getting on my Dad's channel is somewhat cryptic and for whatever reason it's this snippet:

Jesus called out to his Dad: "Romney is coming. Romney is coming. What shall I do?"

Dad answered: "Jesus Christ, son, you better look busy."