Two things Obama doesn't want to talk about: the last four years and the next four years

Washington Post editorial: "Show me a policy"

Analysts have wondered at the Obama campaign’s flat-footed response to the candidate’s poor first-debate performance. It’s one thing to have an off night. It’s another to spend the next week whining about your opponent’s “lies” and wallowing in Big Bird trivia. How to explain an impressive political team performing so feebly?
Alas, the answer lies at the heart of President Obama’s reelection bid: the absence of a second-term agenda. Mr. Obama has yet to say how he would solve the immense problems awaiting the next president immediately after election. Until and unless he does, the only rationale he can offer voters is the urgency of stopping the other guys.

So in the next debate it's back to the "kill Romney" strategy. RIP Hope and Change.

Extra - Jennifer Rubin: "Recall that virtually the entire Obama strategy was aimed to discredit and delegitimize Romney as a candidate. The avalanche of negative ads in the summer, however, failed (barely) to do so. With Romney’s extraordinary debate performance, it now becomes nearly impossible to vilify him. Unfortunately for Obama he’s got no Plan B. He never devised an impressive second-term agenda. He has either unpopular (Obamacare) or unhelpful (raise taxes) or small beans (hire 100,000 teachers) proposals. Romney has therefore been able to deploy his “we can’t afford four more years” argument quite effectively."