President Obama continued his own critique of his debate performance last week, telling Tom Joyner, a talk radio show host, on Wednesday that he had been “too polite†with Mitt Romney.
“It's hard to sometimes just keep on saying, ‘and what you're saying isn't true,'†Mr. Obama told Mr. Joyner in an interview. He promised that he would be more aggressive in the next debate, which is scheduled for Tuesday at Hofstra University on Long Island. “By next week, I think a lot of the hand-wringing will be complete because we're going to go ahead and win this thing,†Mr. Obama said. “We've got four weeks left in the election and we're going to take it to him.â€
Mr. Joyner's radio show has a big audience among African-Americans.
Mr. Obama's efforts at damage control were the second time this week that he baldly admitted to not performing up to par in the debate. He told a fund-raising audience in Los Angeles on Sunday that his performance in the debate had gone awry.
Mr. Obama also predicted that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. would do a “terrific†job against Mr. Romney's running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan, at the vice-residential debate Thursday night.
