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Obama can't go all out in these first two debates...it would be a mistake. He has to attack Mitt slightly in the second, then go full arsenal in the final debate, so Romney doesn't have an opportunity to plan a convincing rebuttal. I almost got the feeling that Romney threw his biggest arguments on the table tonight. From this point on, his strengths will have to be repeated arguments, rather than bringing something new...and that's where Obama comes in. You're basically butting heads with one of the greatest speakers in history, despite what you feel about his first term as President...and you can't show your hand THIS early (Mitt), even if you are behind a bit. It almost made me sick to hear Romney preaching in favor of the middle class as much as he did. Whether you're for him or against him, you know for a fact that's not his focus...but tonight, he repeatedly brought them up (us up, since I'm middle class) and almost spoke to rake in voters, rather than to tell us what he will do OR what he will try to do once he's elected. I could also see that Obama was a bit ticked off that Romney continued to claim that there would be $700 billion cuts in Medicare if he was not elected...without actually explaining what those cuts were, exactly. Instead of defining them as cuts to the actual costs of services, he warped it enough to make everyone think the plan was to cut into coverage. Obama made it clear as day what he wanted to do (used to "one test instead of multiple tests + doctors" example, which would help cut costs), but it was overlooked. Ryan will probably dominate Biden. Who knows, really. However, it's going to take that PLUS an incredible three debates by Romney, and I think he may have given away his specialty punch tonight, and Obama will most definitely take advantage of that, especially when they get the green light to start slinging mud at each other...because quite frankly, it's going to be difficult to sling mud at a four-year President who has already heard it all up to this point. As much as I thought he was a nutcase who wanted us to convert back to the 70's way of living, Ron Paul would have had a better chance against him...running as a Republican and gathering a handful of votes from the Democrats (more than Romney would get). But at the end of the day, the only man alive that could contest Obama on that stage would be Bill Clinton, and he's swinging the bat from the same team + he has already served his two, so I have no clue how Obama could manage to lose this one.

I lost it when Wilson came in. . They need to make more of these. http://profootballmock.com/?p=4810

I don't know. If I were in his shoes, I would have played defense, also. The fact that Romney won the coin toss, to get in the last word, basically helped him make that decision as well. It really doesn't seem THAT relevant, but the fact is, the first debate won't be as memorable as the last...and if Romney was going to close out the first one, it was a wise decision for Obama to hold back and defend his stance on particular issues that Romney fought against, rather than blasting Mitt from the start and losing that thunder to Romney's closing statements. I mean, it's similar to when I'm debating here. I don't put all of my eggs in the basket right off the bat. I'll say something, argue a couple of times, and wait for the slip or for any door to open far enough for me to slam it shut as hard as I can. You can't get everyone's attention by pushing a nearly-closed door shut, but if it's wide open, you can turn heads quickly. Now that Obama has come out looking like he's holding back (or to some, looking like he's defeated), all eyes will be on him...and that's the point. Good speakers want you to hear. Great speakers demand that you listen.

I might as well put that, actually. I usually open in a new window because, most of the time, I already have about five tabs up, but I'm pretty sure a lot of you don't browse like I do. Good point.

It would be nice, but I can't control their links. It's basically me sticking their site in another window, on OTR. If you go to that particular page, you'll see that most of those links open in the same window, and unless I'm the one coding their site (or I request they change it just for us, lol), it's going to happen in the frame as well. Hold SHIFT before you click a link. It's really easy. I added that to the bottom of each frame, so you guys can remember.

Ah...Division Leader permissions. Should be seeing it now.

You don't have an NBA scoreboard?

With all due respect, I think it's best we stick with the system we've had in place for five or six years now. I know other sites will do things differently, but that's their thing. A game of the night would just be based on what I thought, and it would ignore half of the teams in the league to begin with. How many "game of the night" topics would include the Wizards, Wolves, Warriors, Raptors, Pistons, Pacers, Clippers, etc? The idea is to get people to post in those gameday topics, because all of the Lakers and Heat games will be active no matter what we do. If the Pistons payed the Kings, there's a chance it will have one or two posts total (later in the season). Would that actually be a game of the night candidate if it's on the same night as a Lakers/Heat match-up? Not a chance. The game status prefix has to be controlled by the staff, somehow. They just don't automatically add to the topic once a game is over, unless the board is directly tied into NBA.com's database (or a similar site, like ESPN), and it reads that particular table entry (ex. Preview, 2nd QTR, or Final). Asking the staff to mark games as they end...I'm not really sure if it's worth the work, because that means they will need to monitor every game that night (and there are 13+ games on during some nights), instead of watching them and commenting on those that actually interest them. They'll be sitting there looking at boxscores, waiting for games to end. To my knowledge, no message board has all 1200+ games available to post in by preseason. Other than RealGM and maybe ISH, no basketball board has produced the activity we have in those gameday topics. Few all-sports sites have matched it (can't think of one off the top of my head right now, actually). If discussion hits a wall, I'll be looking into more ways to increase exposure, whatever needs to be done...but it's really dipping my hand into a recipe that has been effective for so many years now, so I really don't know if that's a smart move or not.

People, go vote! http://www.otrbasketball.com/forums/forum/103-run-yo-mouth-2010

I moved the old topics into an archives forum. And...Nitro, you're the forum moderator. You should be able to edit topic titles, delete posts, pin/unpin topics, and open/close topics in the RYM forum.

Already have the forum up, just need to empty out the past battles. And I moved this to the Feedback/Suggestions forum, so more can see it. One more participant?