President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, University of Denver, October 3, 2012, first presidential debate

Once A Bully…

It is wrong to say that someone is always a bully, but many bullies never grow out of their behavior. Last night, we watched the debate between President Barack Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney, and it was clear to see that Romney was shaken repeatedly throughout the debate.

Now, I make a habit of not listening to the debate all that much. Instead, I watch. It is amazing what you pick up with your eyes. Romney was shaken throughout the debate. Bullies often are when they someone stands up to them. Bullies do not like being challenged. They do not like having their belief in superiority threatened.

Forget about the gaffes and mistakes that Romney made last night. The anecdote about getting all these offers from women’s groups to name women that Romney could hire was a nice one even if he botched it with the line “binders full of women”. Romney failed to answer the question.

In fact, Romney often failed to answer the question he was asked. When he was confronted with a question, his response was to run away. That is kind of what politicians do. They offer sound bites and forget about the details. The problem was how Romney failed to answer the questions. Rather than answering the questions or even just giving his spiel, Romney ran roughshod over President Obama and even went so far as to ignore the debate rules that he agreed to in order to directly challenge Obama. While Obama would, later, do the same, Romney threw out the rules first. Romney also tended to run roughshod over Candy Crowley.

What is interesting to watch is the moment that not only Obama but Crowley correct Romney about Obama’s statements regarding the attack on the consulate in Benghazi. Romney assumed that this was a valid and useful line of attack, but when not only was he corrected, but the audience turned on him over that attack, Romney was left looking unhappy and even slightly angry. He had been challenged.

Going through the stills of the debate, it is often easy to see how Romney is thin lipped. He is not happy about what is being said, and he does not like being challenged.

We know that Mitt Romney is a bully. Incidents from his childhood show that. The problem is, he is a bully who never grew up. He never stopped being a bully.