I see the term “wiping the floor” used a lot in politics, especially with regard to the recent Joe Biden-Paul Ryan meeting in Kentucky. And every time I hear it, I cringe a little bit. Is this an exchange of ideas, or an arm-wrestling match? And if your guy–whoever it might be–somehow does succeed in “wiping the floor” with the other guy, will it really change anything? Anything at all? I very much doubt that it would.
By this stage in the game, most people have made their minds up about the whole idea of a second term for president Obama. Either you want that to happen, or you don’t. And the idea that there’s still a sizable chunk of the electorate that can be swayed one way or the other is silly, in my opinion.
I’ll give an example of what I mean. Like most people, I like eating pizza. So much so that even if I had the most terrible pizza that’s ever been put together, I might walk away and tell others how bad it was, but I’ll go back to eating pizza again the very next time I can.
And so it is with President Obama and his challenger. If you’re convinced that Obama must go, and his opponent is somehow reduced to a sputtering mess by the force of Obama’s reasoning tonight, are you ever going to think “You know, maybe four more years wouldn’t be such a bad thing for the country”? No, of course not. You’d say “Well, Obama didn’t play fair” or “Romney had an off night” or something along those lines.
The next two televised joint appearances (I can’t quite find it in me to call them “debates”) will happen, because the politico-industrial complex has declared that they should, but you’ll find more meaningful action watching the Yankees try to solve Jason Verlander instead. That’s just my opinion, though. It’s all you can ever expect to find in this space.
Blue Batting Helmet 