Obama Thought He Won the First Debate

If you watched the first presidential debate between President Obama and Mr. Romney (and you weren't totally in denial) it was clear that Mr. Romney got the better of President Obama. And when I say "clear", I mean, 72% to 20%. That's a Clemson vs. West Virginia in the Orange Bowl kind of win. Which leads into this: When Obama walked off the stage after the debate, he thought he had won.

Here's my take: If the President didn't prepare for the debate, slacked off playing golf because he thought he was going to win, that's one thing. It's overconfidence, and it can be forgiven. It's easy to see why he thought he was going to win. Everyone around him for the last four years has been telling him how great he is, how awesome he is, how he's the smartest guy around. So it's understandable that this happened:

'President Obama made it clear he wanted to be doing anything else - anything - but debate prep,' the Democrat said. 'He kept breaking off whenever he got the opportunity and never really focused on the event.

 But here's the thing that is more problematic than laziness/overconfidence:

 Obama believed he had actually won.

It's one thing to not study for the test because you think you're going to ace it. It's one thing not to practice hard before a big football game because you're playing a school from a lower division. However, if you flunk the test and lose the football game, you have a much bigger problem than laziness/overconfidence - you're out of touch with reality and/or you're so incompetent that you don't even recognize what competence looks like.

I don't want a lazy president, but hey, it happens. What I really don't want is a president who can't tell when he's just gotten his butt kicked.