President Obama left his "greatest hits on the cutting room floor" for Wednesday night's debate, claimed CBS This Morning
co-host Norah O'Donnell after the debate. According to her,
"contraceptive rights" and "free mammograms" in ObamaCare are some of
the President's "greatest hits."
"There was no mention of Bain," she said on Wednesday night's Charlie
Rose. "There was no mention of the auto industry saved. There was no
mention of the wars ended, and in the discussion about ObamaCare, he
didn't mention that that would turn back many provisions that protect
women's health, free mammograms, contraceptive rights."
[Video below. Audio here [1].]
"So there are a number of things that are greatest hits that he uses on
the campaign stump that he didn't mention tonight," she continued,
after rattling of a list of Obama's "greatest hits" that he should have
trumpeted.
On Thursday's CBS This Morning, O'Donnell continued her
"greatest hits" narrative and then bewailed that "facts have been one of
the casualties in this campaign, certainly both sides," before pointing
the finger squarely at Mitt Romney. "Let's talk about Mitt Romney's tax
plan," she offered.
Co-host Charlie Rose repeated a question he asked the previous day [2],
about a "new Mitt Romney" showing up at the debate. "John, is this a
new Mitt Romney or is this simply a Mitt Romney that we had not seen?"
he wondered.
A transcript of the CBS This Morning segment, which aired on October 4 at 7:06 a.m. EDT, is as follows:
CHARLIE ROSE: Exactly how does this change the dynamics of the race?
JOHN DICKERSON, CBS News political director: Well, conservatives who
were worried about Romney, not sure if he was on kind of a long-term
slide are now very excited. It means Mitt Romney doesn't have to deal
with those money folks who he's been having to settle down. So that
takes care of – they are very excited. I think it also gives Romney a
second look from those independent voters, or folks who are just still
tuning in. So it corrects the kind of public narrative for him. And
those are both good things. The real question, though, is can this stick
to Romney, can he take advantage of this successful performance?
NORAH O'DONNELL: And John, what about President Obama's performance?
You know, there was no mention of the 47 percent, no mention of Bain, no mention of women's health care and ObamaCare. Did Obama leave his greatest hits on the cutting room floor?
DICKERSON: I think he did. What Mitt Romney did successfully is he was
able to press the case against the President while also remaining
appealing enough that those instant polls done after the debate showed
people liked Mitt Romney. The President stayed away from doing anything
that was too terribly aggressive. He spoke sort of as if he were leading
a seminar about this. And by not being aggressive, he as you said left
some of his best material on the cutting room floor. You can be sure
that in ads and in talking points in the coming days that's not going to
be the case.
CHARLIE ROSE: John, is this a new Mitt Romney or is this simply a Mitt Romney that we had not seen?
DICKERSON: Well, isn't that a – that's been a long standing question
about Mitt Romney. I think there were a lot of times where Mitt Romney
talked about his Massachusetts record. He gave the President grief for
kissing the New York banks, he said at one point. He seemed to suggest
that Dodd-Frank, the regulations that he had really been very much
against in the primaries he sort of suggested that parts of it were
okay. It was a more moderate Mitt Romney, and so the question is will he
be able to sustain that. Moderate both in the things he said but in
tone and in the way he came across. Now he has to find a way to convey
that in the other kinds of venues and of course in the next debate but
also on the stump, in his commercials, to kind of keep this image of
himself that came across well for voters last night, keep it in front of
them.
ROSE: What do you think fact checkers will be looking most closely at?
DICKERSON: The numbers. So Mitt Romney talked about his tax plan. What
the President was trying to say was that you can't have a program of tax
cuts and also increase in defense spending. That adds up. Without
drastic spending cuts. And that's one of the things that people will be
going after with Mitt Romney. Also his claims about his health care plan
and Medicare, again, how exactly his plan would work out. But I think
in particular the question of the taxes and the budget and how that
would affect people if it were really put into place, that will be the
main fact checking question going forward.
O'DONNELL: John, I feel like facts has been one of the casualties in
this campaign, certainly both sides. And there's a lot of stuff in the
papers today analyzing things that both Obama said that were untrue and
Romney said that were untrue. So everybody's going to take a fine-tooth
comb through the paper this morning to go through that. Let's talk about
Mitt Romney's tax plan. He wants to cut everyone's rates by 20 percent.
Is it true that that would cost $5 trillion? Yes or no?
DICKERSON: Well the question is how do you shape it? The question for
Romney is not necessarily that he's telling an untruth, it's that he's
not giving us any of the details. So he's saying that he can reduce
rates and it will not be a net tax decrease because he will get rid of
loopholes? Well, which loopholes are you going to get rid of? What
spending are you going to cut? He named cutting funding for PBS. Well,
that's a teeny, tiny little part of the budget. So it's not necessarily
that he's saying an untruth, it's just that he's not filling in this
very big and important part of the equation.
O'DONNELL: Which is how you make up for it. It's a great point.