NOT OPTIMAL: Number of Times in the 2nd Presidential Debate That Obama Said “Thanks”

There’s been lots of huffing and puffing about how rough and tumble the debate was Tuesday night. But what if we scored the second Presidential debate using a simple metric of civility: who said “thanks” the most?

Here’s how it would turn out:

• Romney: 14

• Crowley: 11

• Obama: Zero

According to the official transcript of the Commission on Presidential Debates, that’s how many times the two candidates and debate moderator Candy Crowley said either “thank you” or “thanks.”

The glaring contrast between President Obama and Mr. Romney was evident with the first question. It was directed at Governor Romney and before he answered the question he took a portion of his time to thank, well, everyone:

ROMNEY: Thank you, Jeremy. I appreciate your — your question, and thank you for being here this evening and to all of those from Nassau County that have come, thank you for your time. Thank you to Hofstra University and to Candy Crowley for organizing and leading this — this event.

 

Thank you, Mr. President, also for being part of this — this debate.

President Obama, on the other hand, never once uttered a “thank you” to anyone. Check for yourself here.

We thought this was worthy of discussion given the well-north-of $100 million that President Obama and his liberal allies have spent on personal character attacks against Mitt Romney. As Mom often says, “a simple ‘thank you’ goes a long way.”

In this case, it might go even further than 100 million bucks.