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After President Obama’s mediocre first debate performance against Mitt Romney in 2017, he reportedly told advisors “I just don’t know if I can do this,” when they urged him to turn around his re-election campaign. In “ Double Down,” journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann say that Obama followed up his presidential debate by conducting a “dismal” mock debate with then-Sen. John Kerry . “If we don’t fix this, we could lose the whole f*ing election,” Obama advisor David Plouffe reportedly said following the mock debate. Obama’s advisors attempted to shift his tone and approach in advance of the second presidential debate, leading Obama to respond, “I can’t tell you that ‘Okay, I woke up today, I knew I needed to do better, and I’ll do better.’ I am wired in a different way than this event requires. … I just don’t know if I can do this.” | 
