Who Won the Debate?

[mshan]

Irrespective of inside the beltway chatter, Obama did say well in advance of debate that his goal was to talk to Main Street, specifically those who have not been paying attention at all up to this point.

Time will tell whether Obama's long game can turn some of the remaining undecideds (the so called low information voters, as they are referred to on tv) to him or not: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-daily-rundown/49086377#49086377

All of us here most likely have had our opinion locked in for quite some time, so perhaps, that we were never Obama's target audience...


:ninja:

 

[openwheel]

duh...no one.

 

[woolfe9999]

I don't think it was a trouncing, but Romney clearly did better in the debate. Obama let him get away with all kinds of factually inaccurate stuff, which BTW was pretty well articulated in spite of being false. Most of it just went unanswered.

Let's see what this does with the polling. We'll know in a couple days. My bet is it tightens up the race.

 

[MrColin]

Obama just... didn't really put up a fight.

Seriously, its like he wasn't even trying. Facts play only a small role in debates. To win requires strong emotional appeals and rhetoric. In the case of political debates you have body language and speech patterns to look at too. I think Obama handled the facts passably well, but he looked nervous, tilted his head in deference to Romney, and used too many "uhmm, uhh, err" speech fillers and ended up looking and sounding weak.

It looks like we'll be riding atop a car to war with Iran and going to Mexico for health care some time next year, assuming anyone actually changes their mind based on the debate.

 

[Doppel]

Wth I will sa Romney too. Obama had a decent number of facts and well thought arguments but he was simply less persuasive, he really was. He debated like I would have bt Romney simply did a better job at it tonight. He had been studying and didn't come off like typical Romney asshole.

 

[IronWing]

I did. I read a book.

 

[child of wonder]

I'm not voting for either of them but I say Romney won. He did a good job arguing his points and seemed more like someone trying to convince people while Obama seemed more like he was giving a lecture.

 

[Lemon law]

I'm going with Romney. He baffled everyone with bullshit. Obama could've called him out on his BS, but simply didn't.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My sentiment exactly.

As I suggest the GOP may be the big loser if Romney wins POTUS in 2012,

It took GWB&co almost eight years to totally crash a strong American ecomomy in 2000, and we can almost bet our bottom dollar Romney& the GOP, will totally destroy a weak American ecomomy in less than a year. To some extent the measure is always the in the American unemployment rate. The last time the American people tried the basic Romney plan was during the great depression, where Hoover drove the unemployment rate up to 25%.

Obama at least has kept unemployment to under 10%. But look for a President Romney to achieve at least 26% or better unemployment in a year flat.

 

[mshan]

Romney was trying to fight Obama, and Obama was looking to talk some low information voters who may have only started to tune into elections tonight.

Look at how many times Obama spoke directly into the camera.

Time will tell, but somehow I suspect Romney didn't get the game changer he wanted:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81566.html

Remember how disappointing everyone thought Obama's DNC speech was, especially after Clinton's speech.

No one talks about it at all and it quickly faded into nothing right after DNC (if he had great, soaring oratory, more lasting line of attack is Clint Eastwood empty suit attack).

 

[Doppel]

Irrespective of inside the beltway chatter, Obama did say well in advance of debate that his goal was to talk to Main Street, specifically those who have not been paying attention at all up to this point.

Time will tell whether Obama's long game can turn some of the remaining undecideds (the so called low information voters, as they are referred to on tv) to him or not: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-daily-rundown/49086377#49086377

All of us here most likely have had our opinion locked in for quite some time, so perhaps, that we were never Obama's target audience...


:ninja:

Well oops. Because main street isn't going to factcheck.org. They are voting on rhetoric and romney had more of it. Whether honest or not he emphasized jobs more than Obama.

People don't care about th deficit, though they should. Jobs are the alpha and omega and Obama must stress this.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Mitt comes ahead on the face of it but I still have no clue how he plans on accomplishing anything. Unfortunately the average voter rarely bores themselves with details.

 

[SheHateMe]

Big Bird won by a landslide.

 

[CptObvious]

I can't help but think if Obama studied Clinton's style more, he would have done a lot better. Clinton could argue details and policies well, but he could also cut to the chase and stick it to his opponent in everyday vernacular when needed. Obama the former lawyer needs to bring out the litigator in him, but the "trial lawyer" side, not the "appellate lawyer" side.

 

[Abraxas]

I stand by my original assessment.

Romney was running a Pander Express; math, logic, and reality be damned. If the debate continued another couple hours he would have been promising his education plan would cure male pattern baldness, reduce wrinkles, and make your penis bigger. He made it very clear he would promise anything to get elected.

Obama looked unprepared and listless, like someone who had crammed for the debate the night before and hadn't given it the attention it deserved.

A depressing reminder these two are the best the two largest political organizations in the US can come up with. Nobody won, it just reminded us all our choices are terrible this election.

 

[PJABBER]

The American people won as this just might be the point where the country turns from an unsustainable socialist entitlement course toward an entrepreneurial market driven dynamism.

And you can now say that you were there when the wake up call came.

 

[trenchfoot]

Obama pissed me off. Whatever strategy he thought was going to win him some more votes clearly didn't include winning the debate. He let Romney walk all over him, and Lehrer? Well, he performed like one of those dufus replacement referees.

Round 2 should be more enjoyable, maybe Obama is saving his best for last?

Romney clearly won this one on style. Good for him. Substance-wise? Obama takes it.

edit - I just wish Romney would stop using those tired, worn out debunked lies he's been tossing around as if it were fact. It makes him look like a cheap snake oil salesman.

 

[Svnla]

ABC News Nightline gave the nod to Romney, even the panelists.

 

[bradley]

The plutocracy has already won... and any American artful at political posturing. All that is left are the miniscule details. Everyone else is SOL.

 

[NFS4]

Romney, no contest

 

[theevilsharpie]

A depressing reminder these two are the best the two largest political organizations in the US can come up with. Nobody won, it just reminded us all our choices are terrible this election.

Obama's no dummy. and he talks a good game. I think everyone (even Romney) is surprised at how the debate went.

The more I think about his debate performance tonight (stammering, lack of response, leaving the room quickly at the end, etc.), the more I believe that Obama's distracted by something. Maybe an especially poor jobs report, or something going down in the Middle East?

 

[jpeyton]

Historically, no candidate has gained the lead on debate performance alone.

Mittens is still going to lose.

 

[mshan]

After watching whole debate, my word cloud for Obama is economy, education, investment.

For Romney, $716 billion and small business.

What were others takeaways?

 

[Modular]

Delete

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I felt like Obama played to fail. He didnt' go on the offensive, he didn't rebuttal any of Romney's BS, and he didn't go on the defensive well. He couldn't articulate his achievements, and he looked flat out bad.

I think Obama did ok for the first 15 minutes or so, but just got progressively worse. By the time we moved out of economy, I felt like he was just flailing helplessly.

Can't believe how poorly John McCain did in 2008. It made me facepalm too.

 

[Modular]

Obama's no dummy. and he talks a good game. I think everyone (even Romney) is surprised at how the debate went.

The more I think about his debate performance tonight (stammering, lack of response, leaving the room quickly at the end, etc.), the more I believe that Obama's distracted by something. Maybe an especially poor jobs report, or something going down in the Middle East?

Or it could be the fact that he was simply outmatched and had no answer for the times he was called on his bs. Like reducing the deficit (which he doubled). Or maybe because people realized that he's been president for 4 years and changed nothing each time he brought up high unemployment or some other current economic hardship. Dudes done.