Last night, in Denver, Colorado, the incumbent President, Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney sparred on a host of issues in the first Presidential Debate before the November 6 Presidential Election. Polls before the debate showed that majority of Americans believed the President would trounce his challenger in the debate. Although both candidates prior to the debate played down their chances of winning the debate, it was evident both camps were expecting to outdo the other on style, substance, and delivery of facts. After the debate, it was a consensus in both camps (also based on flash polls immediately after the debate) that the Republican candidate won the debate. He not only won the debate, he improved drastically his likeability. My honest analysis here is that, the President was caught napping, he seemed distracted, and was boring in style. Mitt Romney on the other hand, was aggressive, seemed well prepared for the clash, and took it to the President in “in your face” style.
The President missed several opportunities to deflect Romney’s charges and obviously, he allowed Romney to roam as he (Romney) wanted on key issues that before the debate, were thought to be the President’s comfortable sphere. Mitt Romney got well under the President’s skin mercilessly while the President appeared to be ineffective in the defense of his policies. Mitt Romney, I thought, was both the candidate and the Moderator for the night as he literally took over the moderation of the debate leaving the Moderator, Jim Lehrer a bit disoriented. Romney was advised by his campaign to come to the debate swinging, and that he did. Obama was advised to avoid any drama in order not to seem agitated or ruffled and that he did but much to his own detriment. What about Romney’s “47%” comment? What about his record at Bain Capital? Are these issues not pertinent in a debate that focused on domestic issues and the economy? What about Obama’s “Re-distribution, You didn’t build that” comment? Shouldn’t they have been brought up by Romney to score more points? Even though Mitt Romney let those issues slip by, he still landed more punches if not a TKO.
What is left to be seen is whether Romney’s excellent performance last night will shift the trend of polls leading to the election as he trails the President in most of the key battleground States. If there had been some sort of nebula over Mitt Romney’s personality and political philosophy, he cleared some of it last night. If people until the debate weren’t sure about who Romney was, I think they definitely got a clue last night although it can be argued that he was very short on specifics. On key economic issues, I believe Americans are now more confused as to whose plan will be better for the Middle Class than they were prior to the debate. Does Mitt Romney really care for the Middle Class? Does Barack Obama deserve a second term given the current state of the economy? We’ll see on November 6 how Americans will answer these questions.
Independents like me, no doubt, will decide this election and we are still undecided, waiting for the rest of the debates in order to see who actually is better for America at a critical time as this. Yes, we are waiting on the remaining debates. We know where the candidates stand on key issues and the way they explain and clarify the vague aspects of those issues during the debates, will determine how we make up our minds concerning the candidates. Indeed, Romney aggressively targeted Obama’s record even though he would not clearly state how he would do things differently. Was the debate a game changer? I certainly do not think so. Did we get a foretaste of what we are looking for, definitely yes!
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