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Round One: Romney

The challenger a clear winner in the opening debate

13 comments

Round One: Romney

POSTED: Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 11:24 PM

Chris Christie called it.

Mitt Romney outran the incumbent, ran all over the moderator and ran away with the first debate of the presidential campaign Wednesday.

Romney appeared tightly wound, but ready to rumble; Barack Obama seemed prepared to deliver a civics lecture, circa 2008; and the venerable Jim Lehrer just looked vulnerable.

But a even a moderator better prepared to control the flow wouldn't have facilitated a better performance by the president, whose discursive wonkiness played poorly in contrast to Romney's can-do directness.

The Republican challenger's slightly manic but effective energy underscored the listlessness of Obama, whose loss of the coin toss left him to speak first and Romney with the final word.

Which pretty much summed up the evening.

Kevin Riordan @ 11:24 PM Permalink | 13 comments

13 comments

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Comments (13)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:33 PM, 10/03/2012

I predicted Obama would rely on old talking points and play it safe just like he did during the convention and that's what he did. Romney seemed more passionate, more presidential, more prepared, more articulate, more knowledgable, more everything. Libs can argue that Romney played with the facts but that's Obama's job to call him out on it. That's the point of these debates and he didn't do it.

— Phillies2008WSChamps

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:48 PM, 10/03/2012

Omama looked like a community organizer over his head, vs a real leader with vision and know how.

— ghkramer

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:55 PM, 10/03/2012

The president utterly failed to articulate the crux of the issues not only in terms people (outside of dc and punditland) can appreciate but also in their essence and with reference to the bigger picture. Romney pressed his points simply and repeatedly without any of the obvious retorts available being set forth by his opponent, let alone any passionate delivery. Romney was effective. The President sometimes half appeared as if he had no burning interest in getting re-elected. He was speaking well but I dont know to what audience. Romney's earned himself some new campaign momentum but the details are just not there and the majority of people outside of the "base" are simply not taking him on trust and faith because of the person he is.

— Tkat

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:28 AM, 10/04/2012

Obama played this like a pitcher that just needed to get three outs, he wasn't aggressive, and Romney hit sevral extra base hits to get right back in the game. I'm not loving Biden's chances against Paul Ryan next week, so Obama needs to have a better showing next time.

— drbob1

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:32 AM, 10/04/2012

After four years of Barack Obama, 47 million Americans are on food stamps, middle-class family income has dropped by several thousand dollars, and one out of seven Americans can not find a full-time job. So those who think Mr. Obama just has to turn in a better debate performance are the type who would urge a youngster to murder his parents and then throw himself on the mercy of the court, as an orphan. Spin can only cover so much ugliness.

— celtic

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 6:51 AM, 10/04/2012

If it were a fight, it would have been stopped in round one. The entire facade the media created with it's lies and selective editing comes downin one big pile.

— tr88

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:37 AM, 10/04/2012

alot of facts that Obama made about Romney were incorrect and he was corrected many times.

— vallymom

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 8:06 AM, 10/04/2012

Obama last night reminded me of Pres George H.W. Bush's performance against Bill Clinton back in 1992. He obviously didn't want to be there, and couldn't wait for it to be over.

If he'd been caught staring at his watch, it would have been identical.

— Manny Yunker

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 8:21 AM, 10/04/2012

Michael Moore's tweet sums it up: "If Romney keeps this up...Obama is going to vote for him!"

— CD75

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 8:49 AM, 10/04/2012

Romney was polished and well prepared for his presentation. But it seems this was a program full of campaign commercial slogans. Obama seemed uninspired and looked as if he wanted to be some other place.

How we get to the points that he talks about was not clear.

This amounted to dueling opinions through talking points.

— Dexter

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:16 AM, 10/04/2012

This is why romney should not be in office: "you'll never balance the budget by raising taxes." If romney takes revenue increases off the table, the budget will never be balanced. Along with that, spending $2 trillion more in unnecessary military spending does nothing to balance our budget.

— flavious27

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:02 AM, 10/04/2012

Romney To Obama: "I've Been In Business 25 Years And I Have No Idea What You're Talking About"

Priceless by Mitt!

— Nitroglycerin

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:33 PM, 10/04/2012

flavious-Raising taxes slows down the economy even more. More revenues are collected through lower taxes and more people paying taxes because they are working. Romney must have said that 10 times and he's right. You can get more out of putting 23 million people to work than taxing a couple million millionaires. Plus the millionaires help create jobs. If they didn't then millionaires would be unemployed and middle class people would be working. That's not the case. Obama's talking points are factually inaccurate. Spin is fun for campaigning but not in reality.

— Phillies2008WSChamps