October 8, 2012

• Whoa — There Was Prep?

  That’s just my favorite line from Maureen Dowd’s riotous New York Times summation of what happened Wednesday night between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.

  Enjoy:

  Two Presidents, Smoking and Scheming

  By

  MAUREEN DOWD

  New York Times

  AFTER the debate, I was talking to Aaron Sorkin, who was a little down. Or, as he put it, “nonverbal, shouting incoherently at a squirrel, angrier than when the Jets lost to the 49ers last Sunday without ever really being on the field.”

  Aaron was mollified when he learned that President Obama, realizing things were dire, privately sought the counsel of a former Democratic president known for throwing down in debates. I asked Aaron if he knew how the conversation between the two presidents had gone and, as it happened, he did. This is his account.

  •

  The lights from the presidential motorcade illuminate a New Hampshire farmhouse at night in the sprawling New England landscape. JED BARTLET steps out onto his porch as the motorcade slows to a stop.

  BARTLET

  (calling out) Don’t even get out of the car!

  BARACK OBAMA

  (opening the door of his limo)Five minutes, that’s all I want.

  BARTLET

  Were you sleepy?

  OBAMA

  Jed —

  BARTLET

  Was that the problem? Had you just taken allergy medication? General anesthesia?

  OBAMA

  I had an off night.

  BARTLET

  What makes you say that? The fact that the Cheesecake Factory is preparing an ad campaign boasting that it served Romney his pre-debate meal? Law school graduates all over America are preparing to take the bar exam by going to the freakin’ Cheesecake Factory!

  OBAMA

  (following Bartlet inside)I can understand why you’re upset, Jed.

  BARTLET

  Did your staff let you know the debate was gonna be on television?

  OBAMA

  (looking in the other room)Is that Jeff Daniels?

  BARTLET

  That’s Will McAvoy, he just looks like Jeff Daniels.

  OBAMA

  Why’s he got Jim Lehrer in a hammerlock?

  BARTLET

  That’s called an Apache Persuasion Hold. McAvoy thinks it’s the responsibility of the moderator to expose — what are they called? — lies.

  WILL

  (shouting)Did Obama remove the work requirement from Welfare-to-Work?!

  LEHRER

  No!

  WILL

  And you didn’t want to ask Romney about that because? It would’ve been impolite?!

  BARTLET

  Let’s go in another room, Mr. President. You want a cigarette?

  OBAMA

  I stopped smoking.

  BARTLET

  Start again. (Leading the way into his study)I’m a father of daughters, you’re a father of daughters. It looked to me like right before you went on stage, Sasha told you she likes a boy in her class who has a tattoo.

  OBAMA

  That’s not what hap —

  BARTLET

  Here’s what you do. You invite the boy over for dinner, you have a couple of fellas from your detail brush their suit coats back just enough so the lad can see the .44 Magnums — problem solved. You have what every father of a daughter dreams of — an army and a good dog.

  OBAMA

  The girls are fine, that wasn’t the problem. In the debate prep we —

  BARTLET

  Whoa … there was prep?

  OBAMA

  (shouting) Enough! (taking a cigarette and lighting it)I appreciate that the view’s pretty good from the cheap seats. Gore chalked up my debate performance to the altitude. He debated at sea level — what was his excuse?

  BARTLET

  They told you to make sure you didn’t seem condescending, right? They told you, “First, do no harm,” and in your case that means don’t appear condescending, and you bought it. ’Cause for the American right, condescension is the worst crime you can commit.

  OBAMA

  What’s your suggestion?

  BARTLET

  Appear condescending. Now it comes naturally to me —

  OBAMA

  I know.

  BARTLET

  It’s a gift, but I’m likable and you’re likable enough. Thirty straight months of job growth — blown off. G.M. showing record profits — unmentioned. “Governor, would you still let Detroit go bankrupt as you urged us to do four years ago?” — unasked. (shouting)I’m talkin’ to you, too, Lehrer!

  WILL

  (in the other room)I got him, sir!

  BARTLET

  All right! (back to OBAMA)And that was quite a display of hard-nosed, fiscal conservatism when he slashed one one-hundredth of 1 percent from the federal budget by canceling “Sesame Street” and “Downton Abbey.” I think we’re halfway home. Mr. President, your prep for the next debate need not consist of anything more than learning to pronounce three words: “Governor, you’re lying.” Let’s replay some of Wednesday night’s more jaw-dropping visits to the Land Where Facts Go to Die. “I don’t have a $5 trillion tax cut. I don’t have a tax cut of a scale you’re talking about.”

  OBAMA

  The Tax Policy Center analysis of your proposal for a 20 percent across-the-board tax cut in all federal income tax rates, eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax, the estate tax and other reductions, says it would be a $5 trillion tax cut.

  BARTLET

  In other words …

  OBAMA

  You’re lying, Governor.

  BARTLET

  “I saw a study that came out today that said you’re going to raise taxes by $3,000 to $4,000 on middle-income families.”

  OBAMA

  The American Enterprise Institute found my budget actually would reduce the share of taxes that each taxpayer pays to service the debt by $1,289.89 for taxpayers earning in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.

  BARTLET

  Which is another way of saying …

  OBAMA

  You’re lying, Governor.

  BARTLET

  “I want to take that $716 billion you’ve cut and put it back into Medicare.”

  OBAMA

  The $716 billion I’ve cut is from the providers, not the beneficiaries. I think that’s a better idea than cutting the exact same $716 billion and replacing it with a gift certificate, which is what’s contained in the plan that’s named for your running mate.

  BARTLET

  “Pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan.”

  OBAMA

  Not unless you’ve come up with a new plan since this afternoon.

  BARTLET

  “You doubled the deficit.”

  OBAMA

  When I took office in 2009, the deficit was 1.4 trillion. According to the C.B.O., the deficit for 2012 will be 1.1 trillion. Either you have the mathematics aptitude of a Shetland pony or, much more likely, you’re lying.

  BARTLET

  “All of the increase in natural gas has happened on private land, not on government land. On government land, your administration has cut the number of permits and licenses in half.”

  OBAMA

  Maybe your difficulty is with the words “half” and “double.” Oil production on federal land is higher, not lower. And the oil and gas industry are currently sitting on 7,000 approved permits to drill on government land that they’ve not yet begun developing.

  BARTLET

  “I think about half the green firms you’ve invested in have gone out of business.”

  OBAMA

  Yeah, your problem’s definitely with the word “half.” As of this moment there have been 26 recipients of loan guarantees — 23 of which are very much in business. What was Bain’s bankruptcy record again?

  BARTLET

  And finally?

  OBAMA

  Governor, if your ideas are the right ideas for our country, if you have a plan and it’s the best plan for our future, if your vision is the best vision for all of us and not 53 percent of us, why aren’t you able to make that case in the same ZIP code as the truth?

  BARTLET

  And?

  OBAMA

  Tell John Sununu anytime he wants to teach me how to be more American he knows my address for the next four years. He used to have an office there before he was fired.

  BARTLET

  You picked a bad night to have a bad night, that’s all. You’ve got two more chances to change the scoreboard, and Joe unplugged should be pretty good television too. Make Romney your cabana boy in New York.

  OBAMA

  Got it.

  BARTLET

  (taking the cigarette out of OBAMA’s hand and stubbing it out) These things’ll kill you. Pull McAvoy off Lehrer on your way out.

  © 2012 New York Times. All rights reserved.

  • 5:34 am
  • 3 Comments