Sunday: a Day of Rest, and Irishness

Sunday, October 14th, 2012 at 2:26 pm

Romney and Obama are both skipping campaigning today to focus on preparing for their Tuesday night debate. The president’s working with advisers on being ‘more aggressive’ in Virginia, while Romney’s close to home in Belmont, Massachusetts.

All eyes are on Obama to wake up, after even Biden’s punchiness during his debate with Ryan didn’t seem to do the Boss any favours. Team Romney released a new T.V. ad with veep debate clips of Ryan saying the government “can’t keep spending money we don’t have,” juxtaposed with video of Biden laughing.

Meanwhile, the Catholic element of the veep debate seems to have attracted Irish interest in this election. Firstly, an Obama fundraiser is happening in Dublin today, hosted by two lawyers, Bill and Moira Shipsey, and up to 100 American citizens living in Ireland are expected to attend. Secondly, the Corrigan Brothers are back.

‘Who are they?’, you ask. Well, their 2008 song “There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama” was played at the President’s inauguration, and during his May 2011 visit to Ireland and his ‘ancestral home‘ of Moneygall, County Offally.

I just received an email informing me the band is “honoured to become the first Irish Band to release a single with a sitting US President.”

An article in Irish Central claims that 75 percent of young Irish in New York will vote Obama. So no additional pressure, Mr President, with the debate happening in their city in just two days. But, again, should it all boil down to performance?

In a New York Times column today, Maureen Dowd writes, “even if Obama comes out in the town-hall debate on Tuesday with Ben Affleck charm, he has a Mitt Romney problem. Will it be the real Obama or will he just be doing what the media suggest and the base demands?

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