The Second Presidential Debate Tonight

Tonight's the night, dear readers...to borrow the title of Rod Stewart's song. The second debate. The experts and politicians have already said more than there really is to say about it. We have been subjected to state polls, national polls, compilations of national polls. What they all say - polls and experts and politicians alike - is that the presidential race is too close to call. Well...I just do not think so. I think the private campaign staff polls of both candidates are telling a tale of a Romney victory. And if I translate that into a guess about tonight's debate, I see two trends. First, Obama will depend less in facts and more on personal attack to try to shake Romney's confidence and calm. Second, Romney will stick with the facts and make Obama look like a pint-size version of Biden -- vicious, impolite, unworthy. Pint size because Biden has made a 40-year political career out of smearing the opposition, while Obama has been at it, on an elevated intellectual level, but smear tactics all the same, for only 10 years. And, let's be honest, Barak Obama is staring down the barrel of his first political defeat, a defeat that he has brought upon himself, not so much by what he did or didn't do as President but by his immense pride, a pride that led him to seek the presidency unprepared for the office. America knows that now. So does Mitt Romney, who will use it to his advantage tonight. And, more importantly, Barak Obama knows it, and no amount of prepping at Williamsburg can quickly restore the confidence of a man who is in the grip of his first encounter with the reality of life.