WHAT HIDDEN FACTOR WILL TURN THE DEBATE?

Wednesday's debate will hinge more on the demeanor of the candidates than on the issues.  Each has their positions well in hand.   The question is how they will each respond to questions that make them squirm.  This is where Barack Obama may have trouble.  His history has been to storm off when he gets a question he doesn't like.  He will not be able to storm off the debate forum. Obama thinks he king not president, which is a problem.

Of course moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS will be pitching the Snurf Balls to Obama and the hard balls to Mitt Romney.   If Romney can get under Obama's skin (please don't give me a bunch of crap that this is a racist comment) and irritate Obama from the get go, Obama will be in for a long night.

Obama gets very testy when challenged.  Lehrer wouldn’t think of challenging Obama so Romney has to.  It has been reported that Obama has a visceral hatred of Romney, probably because Romney made his money the old fashion way, he earned it through hard work and intelligence.   He didn't write books way before he did anything so big donors, like Soros's of the world could buy them by the ton to funnel money to Obama without suspicion.

He will have a difficult time defending his record.  The question for Romney is will he have the guts to say what needs to be said out loud and not be cowed by the fact that it's not a racial attack when  Obama's record is scrutinized, despite what NBC, CBS, ABC, the NYT and WaPo will claim whenever there is the slightest criticism of Obama's policies that gets traction.

Romney will also have to present his course of action  with specifics and do it in the few-minutes-format of a debate which can be very difficult.  Voters aren't worried about Romney's likability as much has feeling confident that he has the plan to get America working again.

Romney, though, has the Mormon problem.  It's not the religion part, it's his training in the pastoral service of his church.  He is averse at criticism or being directly confrontational which he'll have to be to beat Obama in the debate. That's when Obama get aggressive and hostile which will come across to voters and they won't like it.