Obama Ducks North Carolina Debate

Two mutually reinforcing theories on why Obama cancelled a debate next Sunday with Hillary Clinton: one, he is going to win North Carolina anyway, so why give the desperate Hillary a shot at him, and two, he is afraid of another dismal performance.

There is plausible deniability here, because normally you would expect Obama to turn down a debate when victory is a foregone conclusion, as it was last February when Obama refused a debate in Wisconsin.

Now that the focus is on Obama's debating skills or lack thereof however, it feels a bit different. Shouldn't Obama get back on that horse to prove that his poor performance in Pennsylvania was a fluke? Isn't he running a risk of confirming insinuations that he is indeed a wimp?

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't, because if he does debate Hillary, he is also running the risk of proving again that his only real skill is reading prepared text from a teleprompter.

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