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October 04, 2012
Horse Race: Debate Night 1 Belongs to Mitt Romney.
Whether I like it or or not, Mitt Romney did well last night and, for the time being at least, completely destroyed his "robot" image. He connected with the audience--something I and others thought he simply could not do. In this first debate of three, on domestic policy only, both candidates were less than perfect and credible on the substance and validity of their economic and taxation plans, but Romney was energetic, feisty and human. The president seemed tired and anxious. Round One to the formerly moderate silver spoon Republican pol and ex-governor of Massachusetts. Mitt Romney was very, very well-prepared.
Domestic Policy Night: Mitt Romney's Night. (AP photo)
Posted by JD Hull at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2012
Prediction: Mitt Romney "Wins" First Debate.
No, it's not wishful thinking. It just makes sense. As I type, Mitt Romney, who is often dull but hard-working and mega-bright, is preparing for what is obviously the three most important nights of his political life: the televised debates of October 3, 16 and 22. Respectively, the debates will cover the topics of domestic policy, domestic policy/foreign policy in a town hall format, and foreign policy. If Romney can shine, it will be tomorrow tonight--again, the topic is domestic policy and not in a town hall format--and I expect he will shine and out-perform President Obama in this first one. To all my cookie-cutter and doctrinaire fellow Democrats out there who think Mitt's a "robot": maybe so--but he's a talented robot. Romney has everything on the line and, to be fair, he is no choke-artist. He is preparing for the debates with the equally hard-working and smart Ohio GOP Senator Rob Portman. Expect him tomorrow night to be the most prepared candidate for a presidential debate ever. He will surprise everyone. And he must "win" tomorrow night. The second and third debates? Obama already has the upper hand. The president is better than Romney in town hall settings (October 16) and at least sounds more articulate than Romney on foreign policy (October 22). The second and third debates are the president's to lose.
Tomorrow night's debate host Jim Lehrer, of PBS's NewsHour.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2012
HBR: "The Rise of the General Counsel."
GE's former general counsel Ben Heineman, Jr. has this one right. See his "The Rise of the General Counsel" appearing last week at Harvard Business Review. The in-house community is smarter and stronger than ever. And, no, apart from some GCs and their key lieutenants at a some publicly-traded and private companies, depth and great talent in in-house regimes was not the rule twenty years ago. But that has changed. And it's good news for great outside corporate lawyers.
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Posted by JD Hull at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)