After President Obama’s mediocre first debate performance against Mitt Romney in 2012, he reportedly told advisors “I just don’t know if I can do this,” when they urged him to turn around his re-election campaign.
In “ Double Down,” journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann say that Obama followed up his presidential debate by conducting a “dismal” mock debate with then-Sen. John Kerry .
“If we don’t fix this, we could lose the whole f*ing election,” Obama advisor David Plouffe reportedly said following the mock debate.
Obama’s advisors attempted to shift his tone and approach in advance of the second presidential debate, leading Obama to respond, “I can’t tell you that ‘Okay, I woke up today, I knew I needed to do better, and I’ll do better.’ I am wired in a different way than this event requires. … I just don’t know if I can do this.”
For her part, Michelle Obama reportedly did not suffer from the same reservations as her husband, telling a group of female Obama campaign donation bundlers that the president had only lost the first debate because “Romney is a really good liar.”
It was the second such detail revealed from “Double Down” in recent days. On Thursday, an excerpt from the book revealed that Obama advisors explored the possibility of replacing Joe Biden on the vice presidential ticket with Hillary Clinton .
And while that excerpt also detailed the continually strained relationship between Obama and Bill Clinton, Saturday’s excerpt details how the former president was brought in to help Obama prepare for his second debate with Romney.
At a fundraising debate four days after the first debate, Bill Clinton reportedly told Obama, “Don’t try to make up the ground you lost … Just be yourself.”
Specifically, Clinton warned Obama to not try to compensate for his seemingly detached first debate performance by becoming too aggressive in the re-match.
Plouffee then tried to put the challenge in perspective for Obama.
“You’ve got basically 75 to 80 minutes left of doing this in your entire life. That’s less than the length of a movie!” Plouffe said. “I know it’s unnatural. But that’s all. That’s the finish line, you know?”
“他搞砸了首场电视辩论。现在，第二场辩论乃至竞选连任都处于失败的边缘。”当地时间11月2日，美国记者马克•霍尔柏林与约翰•海勒曼所著新书《加倍》的最新节选内容曝光，讲述美国总统奥巴马如何在2012年总统大选中暗下苦功以“反败为胜”。
2012年10月3日晚，美国总统、民主党候选人奥巴马和共和党候选人罗姆尼进行首场电视辩论。当晚，一向能言善辩的奥巴马似乎不在状态，答问时多次结巴、讲话时连番停顿，而罗姆尼则表现得从容大方，虽然言辞咄咄逼人但不失优雅自信。结果可想而知，奥巴马完败。
依据《加倍》书中的描述，首场电视辩论失利后，奥巴马表现得非常沮丧、似乎提不起精神来扭转败局。所幸，奥巴马拥有一个强大的团队，并最终帮助他渡过难关。
10月14日，距离第二场电视辩论仅有48小 时。奥巴马在弗吉尼亚州威廉斯堡的一处度假村里与当时还是马萨诸塞州参议员的约翰•克里展开言语厮杀。模拟辩论时，克里扮演奥巴马的对手罗姆尼，不断抛出 一个又一个尖锐的问题，而奥巴马则进行回击，并时不时停下来、接受专家对其用词、肢体语言、面部表情等方面的指正。
奥巴马的顾问试图引导他改变说话的语气，让他表现得更加自信。然而，奥巴马似乎还未从此前的失败中恢复过来，“我也想要告诉大家‘我知道我必须做得更好，我能做得更好。’但是，我说不出口……我不知道我是否能够做得到。”
相较于奥巴马，“第一夫人”米歇尔表现得自信得多。《加倍》一书中写道，米歇尔在竞选活动上公开表示，她的丈夫首轮失利是因为“罗姆尼太擅长撒谎了”。
“如果我们解决不了这个问题，我们将失掉整场选举！”奥巴马的顾问戴维•普洛非勉励奥巴马，“从根本上说，一生中你只有75至80分钟的时间来做这件事情，这比看一部电影的时间还要短暂。你要明白，这就是终点线！”
事实证明，奥巴马及其团队的努力获得了回报。16日晚举行的第二场电视辩论中，奥巴马一改之前的低迷状态，屡屡主动出击，力压劲敌。
这是近日来《加倍》节选内容的第二次曝光。上周四，媒体披露的首段节选内容称，2012年总统大选时，奥巴马团队曾考虑用希拉里•克林顿取代副总统拜登担任奥巴马的竞选搭档，并详细描述了奥巴马和希拉里的丈夫比尔•克林顿间时而紧张、时而缓和的关系。
此外，《加倍》一书中还提到，首场电视辩论结束后，克林顿在一个筹款活动上碰到了奥巴马，他善意地提醒奥巴马称：“不要试图弥补已经失去的，做你自己就好。”