The Media is already suggesting that "style will trump substance".  And the spin begins. The better cosmetology and voice inflections wins. The gift of this assertion is that the comment actually distills to the essence, the contrast between the parties and punctuates the subliminal mechanisms of the press. 

The celebrity attraction of Obama is admitted to be paramount.  The futility of attempting to debate facts with a liberal is now finally understood. It is all explained by the "style trumping substance" world of the liberal.   It is chic and cult like to be on board the Obama train.

On debate night, one tranche of the voting public will look for substance and factual presentation.  Solid math with no double counting will score points.  Hard realities and solutions will resonate well. Operating a small business or balancing the families finances will project to properly managed government.

Yet another group will analyze the warmth and the portrayed sincerity of the candidate.  As in the Kennedy and Nixon debates in Chicago, the visuals will trump the audio.  (radio listeners thought Nixon won the debate, viewers did not) The delivery will surpass the substance.  Specifics will be missing, but platitudes and banalities will warmly garnish the presentation.  Ecstatic evocations of dreamlike tomorrows will make the crowd swoon. The question of "how" won't be asked or answered.

Romney must catch Obama in the unpredictable moment.  If the debate runs to script, catching Obama in a falsehood or bad position will be like attempting to nail jello to a tree.  But, if Obama is forced to ad lib, if he begins a stammering of ums and ahs, Romney will have him treed.  In the real world this wins a debate.  In today's media though, a Romney win will likely label him as mean spirited.

Hopefully keen perception and arguments launched in reality still score points in a world that seems to be temporarily spinning in the wrong direction.  The Media will attempt to tell us what is important. Obama's practiced poetry must be turned into a Univision type moment of intellectual vertigo, ad libbed non facts, and off teleprompter discomfort.

Bruce Johnson