Did Obama have a Bad Night or is He Super Duper Strategically Smart?

For Obama supporters the first presidential debate was clearly disappointing. Romney used baldfaced lies to win but he did win if you came to the debate not knowing about his real positions.  What happened to Obama? Was he tired, ill prepared, caught off guard or what? Most people think it was one of those or something similar.  I hope they are wrong.  Here is my hope of why he did so poorly.

If Obama clearly won, money from Republican donors would quickly move from supporting Romney to supporting down ballot right wing candidates which will cause great problems for down ticket Democrats who will then have that extra money working against them.  Obama will have an easier time winning the next debate and the election despite a poor performance at the first debate than the down ticket Dems would have winning in critical senate and congressional races if that Romney money was used against them.

By super sneakily doing poorly in the first debate, the President not only  kept much of the money that was planned to go to Romney from going to support more vulnerable and less visible down ticket Democrats, he shocked his supporters from being complacent and making them realize they have to really work to get him elected.

If Obama puts on his A game at the next two debates and Biden does OK, Obama’s poor first debate performance could be the reason some of the down ticket Democrats get to win because they won’t have to fight against all the money leaving the sinking Romney campaign which would have happened had the President cleaned his clock and won the election in the first debate.

OK OK, I might just be thinking wishfully…but do you really think no one in the Democratic party was trying to figure out how to deal with the millions of dollars planned for Romney from going to defeat down ticket Democrats if Obama won the debate decisively and made the rich donors think their only hope was to win the house and senate races?  Maybe Obama did worse than he planned to but could he have planned to keep the race alive for strategic reasons?  Risky? Yes.  Possible? Maybe…just saying.