Barack Obama has always been a fine actor and Wednesday night he deftly played the role of a debate loser with Oscar-worthy  brilliance.  I think it was a con. During my college days I hustled pool to make ends meet.  The "hustle" was to give the "mark" enough adrenaline that he really thought he could beat me with money on the line. That meant losing decisively, with feigned emotion, early and often. Isn't that what's happening now, after the first debate, a simple hustle to create the appropriate emotions in the Obama base? The Obama campaign can then channel these amped up emotions into a much stronger turnout than his miserable performance in office would otherwise generate. America loves the underdog, the bottom-of-the-ninth inning home run and the Hail Mary pass with two seconds left in the fourth quarter. The $750 an hour Democratic political consultants also know this phenomenon well. So, perhaps there were paid focus groups this past spring that batted around...(Read Full Post)