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| No dice? from humanevents.com |
Preliminary polls noted as much, with two-thirds of polled, registered voters saying that Romney had won, whereas only a quarter said the same of Obama.
Remarkably, this debate came off as a relatively civil exchange, with few of the "zingers" allegedly prepared by Governor Romney coming to fruition. Towards the conclusion, however, the president's accusation jumped out: "[Romney] says that he's going to close deductions and loopholes for his tax plan. That's how it's going to be paid for, but we don't know the details. He says that he's going to replace Dodd-Frank, Wall Street reform, but we don't know exactly which ones. He won't tell us. He now says he's going to replace Obamacare and ensure that all the good things that are in it are going to be in there and you don't have to worry. And at some point, I think the American people have to ask themselves, is the reason that Governor Romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret because they're too good? Is it -- is it because that somehow middle-class families are going to benefit too much from them?"
This demand for specifics yet again reflected criticism of the governor's vague rhetoric, as noted by Time here and here. Moreover, they corroborate the lead held by the president on most issues, as reflected by this Pew Research Center poll. Yet in light of Wednesday's results, Romney will undoubtedly enjoy a greater vote of confidence.
Mention of the 47 percent was incidentally absent from the debate, indicative of Obama's unaggressive performance. How the Obama's strategy evolves in the future debates should be interesting to note and may ultimately indicate if his initial passive engagement serves a more holistic purpose.
7 comments:
In my opinion, neither candidate truly won this debate--while Obama did come across as "tired" and less passionate than Romney, he also did a far better job of actually going into specifics than the Republican candidate. Sure, if one focuses only on fervor, Romney may have won this debate, but upon listening to what was actually said, the quality of his policy descriptions seems the same if not less than that of Obama's. Hopefully in the debates to come, both Obama and Romney will step up their game and actually both address issues with specifics and energy, in addition to addressing concerns such women's rights and gay rights.
The debate seemed a bit unfocused at times and there were some fuzzy moments like Romney's claims about the loopholes and exemptions for his tax plan, that would avoid an increase to the deficit. I can't say whether this is possible or not, but Romney held his ground fiercely. We'll see how the influence of "factchecking" and the influence of rhetoric compares as the debates go on.
Romney managed to win the debate because of his polished appearance and style points, but for any politically educated person, Romney's continuing disregard for facts and his tendency to flip back and forth on issues was frustrating. While Obama did stretch the truth in some situations, Romney seemed to make many more aggressive assertions that just weren't true, such as saying his 5 trillion dollar tax cut will be completely paid for without raising the deficit or taxes on the middle class (experts from factcheck.org tweeted this is NOT possible during the debate.)
I find it interesting how visually based these debates are, with people's opinions of who "won" coming from who looked the most competent, or the least tired. Judging the debates this way turns them into a measure of each candidate's public speaking skills, rather than a mechanism through which to judge one candidate's policy over another's. It's important to remember that having a leader that can speak well is nice, but what they're saying is more important than their appearance as they say it.
The change in debate format for this one was a bit strange and thus didn't make for as effective a debate as it could have been. While Obama may not have taken all the opportunities he could have to call Romney out on his lies, there were several failings in the actual content of Romney's speeches. However, is based on a personality outlook and overall stronger stage presence, Romney did essentially win this debate. It seems like this will be turning some tides for his campaign, but hopefully we'll see better from Obama in the upcoming debates. A change of strategy is definitely called for.
It seemed many times the debate got a bit off topic and lengthy a bit, but for the most part it looked well rehearsed and practiced... for Romney that is. To me and of course many others, Obama didn't seem like the winning speech man we know from him. He had his head down as if taking a lecture from a teacher and never bullied around the moderator like Romney did. Romney had complete control of the debate most of the time with what he was going to say and rebut. But most importantly facts are needed from both sides. You can't make a statement or desire without backing it up with how you're going to do it. Romney and Obama are both included under this. Maybe Obama needs to spend more time planning than golfing for these upcoming debates...
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