THE DIRECT CONFRONTATION BETWEEN PONTA AND IOHANNIS Klaus missed out on a good opportunity to keep quiet

For twelve minutes, Klaus Iohannis kept quiet: the electoral confrontation at Realitatea TV, held three evenings go, had begun at eight o'clock, moderator Rareş Bogdan talked for six minutes, loquacious Victor Ponta talked for six minutes, and then, at long last, the mayor of Sibiu, converted into a presidential candidate on the down low, finally started talking.

Ah, he can talk!

And let's see what he says:

"Please enlighten me, Mr. Rareş Bogdan, what is the topic, what is the format of this debate? How many minutes are we talking about, what format are we talking about."

Hello!!

Twelve minutes had elapsed, Rareş Bogdan had cornered Ponta with concrete questions about the obstructionist manner in which the vote in the diaspora was organized, the show was well under way, the viewers were waiting for Iohannis to knock Ponta out and to see him being given a count, while laying on the floor.

Instead, Iohannis suddenly turns around and hits the referee:

"I thought I should attend this debate, even though your team, Mr. Victor Ponta, has avoided a meeting on a neutral platform."

In other words, Realitatea TV is biased.

The German was raving - the show was broadcasted live, by four more stations: Antena 3, România TV, B1 and Digi TV.

Together, any biases they may have had would cancel each other out.

And accusing the moderator of being hostile?

That's not what I saw, quite the contrary, he had just made Ponta groggy, holding him by the back of the head, and all Iohannis had to do was give him a flick to send him tumbling.

Instead, Klaus Iohannis smacked Rareş Bogdan.

The analysis of the confrontation could stop right there, because everything else was just more demonstrations of autism from the German - he was out of touch, completely disconnected with the moment, constantly concerned with not being cheated out of his "minutes"", only to finish by inexplicably waiving the time he had allocated for his presentation, acting like he was an underdog with a chip on his shoulder:

"The moderator: Do you have a question for Mr. Ponta?

Iohannis: Now, since you didn't even give me my minutes....

The moderator: They're yours!

Iohannis: ... will you let me the last one to ask the question?

The moderator: Yes, and you do, you still have minutes available to...

Iohannis: I will let them go, I don't want to cause any disputes later..."

All the man had to do was say that he wanted minutes to say something, but he had no idea what.

The next day, in the morning, first vice-president of the ACL Ludovic Orban said, in a press conference, what Klaus Iohannis could have said during the show to spark a bit of interest - that Victor Ponta is involved in the EADS affair, which is relatively new.

For five years now, Klaus Iohannis has been silent.

Since October 2009, when Crin Antonescu conjured him up of thin air as a replacement to former prime-minister Emil Boc (who had been removed by the Parliament), Iohannis has been the image of the liberals' "decency project", which they even got the members of the PSD they are battling today to join, after Victor Ponta and Crin Antonescu "the two billy-goats" - like Ion Iliescu called them - stopped getting along.

He has been silent for five years.

Now, he has spoken, and we've seen his best.

The show had started off well for him.

During those twelve minutes, his silence had left Ponta kind of confused.

Imagine what would have happened, had he kept silent for about an hour and a half, looking at Ponta, with his deep look, that makes him seem so dependable.

It would have been much better.

Without being skilled at it, Iohannis started flinging mud at Ponta.

His dependable eyes turned glossy.

His campaign staff was incapable of realizing that it is pointless to throw mud at Ponta, because it wouldn't be visible.

It would be like flinging mud at mud.

Not even Vadim managed it, and Vadim is a genius when he it comes to boorishness.

Yes, Klaus Iohannis could be a mayor, but maybe Sibiu is a city that's too big for him.

Perhaps a village of 2000 people would be a better fit.

Klaus Iohannis, president of Romania?!

The truth is that, yes, if Victor Ponta can be Romania's president, then why not Klaus Iohannis?!

It's just that intellectuals, who voted for him in the first round, saw their hopes extinguished and fade into darkness.