A thought on the debate in Denver

The media in the United States - and to a point, here in the United Kingdom - is currently buzzing with activity over President Barack Obama's unexpectedly flat performance in last night's debate. Not surprisingly, my family and I have been discussing the debate extensively for much of today, and there was something we thought of that may help explain why Obama wasn't on his game: Syria.

Just before the debate, the situation in Syria had changed with a mortar explosion in Turkey, and Turkey retaliated against Syria. Naturally, everyone is worried about the situation in the Middle East and in Syria especially, but the media, the general public, and even other presidential candidates are not privy to the same information that the president is.

We think there's a possibility that Obama was informed about the changing circumstances in the Middle East before the debate. We think that any intelligence briefing prior to the debate could have contained incomplete facts about Syria and Turkey (not because of poor reporting, but because not all information may have been available yet), and given how volatile the Middle East is he could have been expecting a far worse briefing after the debate, which could have said that the two countries were at war. If that had happened, I doubt anyone would have wanted to have been in Obama's position at that particular moment...even his opponent.

If this was the case, it does not show weakness on behalf of the president: he is entitled to worry about the situation in the Middle East as the rest of us are, and anxiety may have caught him at the wrong moment. On one hand, I think Obama is concerned about the continued loss of life and the affect the conflict may have on the rest of the world, but on the other it is likely that he would be blamed - regardless of whether or not anything was his fault - if the situation exploded...and so he could have been worrying about that, too.

We are speculating, of course, but let's face it: Obama is the president. He has been running the country for four years, and he hasn't exactly had an easy time. This year has been especially difficult for him, with having to govern the country and face excessively challenging international challenges while running for re-election in the most vitriolic presidential race we have ever observed. Even George W. Bush had a difficult time in his debates against John Kerry, and he was under less pressure than Obama currently is. One could just say "deal with it, you're the president, forget any sympathy/leave if you can't handle it" or mock him outright, but he is human, and all sane and reasonable people will find intense pressure too much. The important thing is to find the path to bounce back, and it will be interesting to see how Obama recovers and handles the next debate.

Again, this is all only a possibility, maybe there is another reason. I don't know all the facts and I do not speak for the president, nor do I want this post to be interpreted as "making excuses" for him or making some sort of questioning of his mental state when that is not the intention. I think Obama and his team are very much aware that he will have to pick up the pace in the next two debates and avoid the mistakes of the first round.