I couldn't help but immediately notice the blue and red, the dots and the stripes. Having lived in D.C. for almost thirty years and having thought of the D.C. grid as being like stripes, being that Massachusetts Avenue, Connecticut Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue are the main arteries going in and going out of D.C., which to me was always a metaphor for how things operate in Washington. People don't often cross lines. People go to work on parallel avenues.
Those are the stripes.
Whereas President Obama wearing blue with dots was the perfect metaphor for a man who believes in equality, fairness, plurality.
No matter the ties, it's about style.
It's about body language, not words.
It's about affect and eye contact.
If we were to turn off the sound, and simply watch their body language and expressions along with sub-titles showing the number of words each candidate got to speak (not the words themselves), we would know exactly what happened. Romney sallied forth. Almost like he was channeling someone else. Who is he, anyway? He learned his lines and played his part. He's a really good actor because this man Wednesday night was nobody we've seen or heard before.
Our Obama looked tired. And it was his 20th wedding anniversary. And he cares about being a good family man. And we conjectured that maybe he would just rather have been honoring this big personal occasion in a different way.
Conjecture:
Being as psychologically-minded as I am, I even wondered whether Obama was experiencing mini-traumas as he experienced firsthand in the room, in the space, in the air, the absurdity of Mr. Romney's affect, attitude, smirky smile, untruths, avoidance, misrepresentations, accusations, etc.
Trauma's number one response is to shut us down.
I obviously don't know.
Perhaps it was a mindful decision on his part. This is pure conjecture.
Thank goodness his fire was back today.
He's who we know him to be.
And he will come through for us.
As we will for him.