Romney Impresses in First Debate

Posted by in Blog, Featured, Politics on October 3, 2012 11:19 pm / 1 comment

They say body language tells all, and if that’s true Governor Mitt Romney won tonight’s debate hands down. While Romney maintained eye contact with either moderator Jim Lehrer or President Obama, Obama was often seen with his head down, with a bizarre smirk that I can’t quite explain.

But when it comes to substance, Obama did no better. The President stuck to his talking points of “$5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in increased spending” despite being debunked by Mitt several times over on that claim. Obama also tried the Mediscare tactic, but was again rebuffed by Romney on each attempt. Obama’s main punches were landed based on “specifics” in his tax plan, but these seem weak in the broader scheme of things.

Romney hit hard throughout the debate and Obama seemed unprepared to retaliate. On jobs and the economy, Mitt pointed out this administration’s failure to increase employment. On health care, Romney noted the costs of Obamacare and the rising price of health insurance in the country.

However, Romney could have been much stronger on the debt and deficit at hitting the President. After Obama’s attacks on specifics though, I could understand why he relented some on that front while pushing hard on the others. I’ll take the few punches in regards to Obama’s ”cutting our deficit in half” pledge gladly, though.

Dodd-Frank repeal was also another strong point made by Romney that, again, Obama seemed unprepared for – as if he didn’t sign the bill himself.

It seems to be pretty widely accepted across all ideologies that Mitt Romney won this debate. Winning debates is good, but it doesn’t guarantee you any votes come election day. And with another debate coming, thing can definitely change.

The only win that matters is the one on November 6th.

Addendum: How do you know Mitt won? This how:

https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/253682688177893377

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1 Comments

  1. AApostrophe says:
    October 3, 2012 at 11:29 pm

    Definitely a strong performance for Governor Romney.

    To me, one of Romney’s biggest weaknesses is his lack of specifics, but he had two strong answers to that charge. First of all, he mentioned the capping of deductions that he floated yesterday in regards to his tax plan. I was begging for him to mention it, and though he waited a while, he finally did. So he countered with a specific, and smart, policy proposal. Second, he made a surprisingly strong case about the nature of governing itself: you put forward principles and ultimately work with your legislature to make those come through. His argument seems to be that if, as a candidate, you put forward an overly specific proposal, then you limit yourself too much. I’m not even sure I wholly agree with it, but it’s compelling and it’s *something*, which is more than he’s had in the past.

    He proved tonight that he’s not an extremist and he’s somebody who can believably and competently run the country. Obama’s performance was pretty weak and seemed like he just wasn’t up to the task of debating. It feeds into the narrative of Obama not being “up to the task” of governing.

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