Remember the last debate? Everyone remembers it was a big win for Mitt Romney and a serious let down for the Obama campaign. But do you remember the days prior to the debate? The Obama camp was working overtime in trying to lower expectations of the president’s debate performance. They said debating is not one of Obama’s strong points; they even said Romney’s a great debater. They, in turn, were right — Romney owned the night.

That was two weeks ago. Now, the predictions from the Obama campaign going into the second presidential debate are 180 degrees from what they were. Instead of downplaying expectations of Obama’s performance, news stories are popping up about how the president is taking his debate prep very seriously this time around (he didn’t even take his golf clubs, y’all!).

During the first debate, Obama was flat and boring. This time, his campaign is promising an “energized” and “passionate” candidate.

We’re also hearing about how The campaign has also booked Joe Biden on all the major network morning shows Wednesday morning, signaling more confidence that their candidate will deliver a strong performance.

So what’s different this time around? Did Obama intentionally deliver a lackluster performance during the first debate to try and own the narrative coming out of the second? IF he delivers on the new promises this time around, the media will focus on him as a “comeback kid” of sorts — it puts him in an underdog position that sitting presidents otherwise could never capture.

This is my own conjecture, of course. On the other hand, the campaign could be trying to keep him on life support. Maybe Obama’s hearts not in the race. Who knows? We’ll just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow night.