Presidential debate Denver 2012

Last night in Denver at the first presidential debate, the main topics for the 90-minutes interface were taxes, health care, and the role of government regards to the economy - just as we all expected.     However, no one predicted the overall outcome - Romney the better contender! Romney was fiery and aggressive as he plowed over his competition. Confident and assertive may have been Romney’s body language, but was it enough to turn around the swing states?  Perhaps the real credit should be given to President Obama for keeping his usual professorial, calm and respectful demeanour as Romney proceeded to avoid any kind of straightforward response to the questions being thrown at him. He adamantly states that he is going to cut taxes, but where? He is going to close the loopholes, but which ones? He is going to make America strong again, but how? Obama kept asking for answers and explanations, but like a true politician, Romney was tight-lipped and gave nothing away, except that lovely “PBS” admission - which he’ll probably feel the backlash from when the Democrats strike back! If that weren’t frustrating enough for the President, Romney’s sudden revisionist approach to his initial campaign, would make even  Mother Teresa scream, “Who’re you kidding, middle class concerns, since when!”. 

Obama had all the weapons he needed to destroy Romney, but we all watched in shocked amazement as Romney threw punch after punch at Obama economics, his tax plans and the amusing favorite of the night “Obama care”. The President spent almost the entire session on the defensive, never throwing a jab of his own at what we viewers believed were obvious givens. For instance, Romney kept boasting that his state of Massachusetts was the best in everything all because of his leadership. He was even brazen enough to blame Obama for the current situation in the country, specifically for the unemployment rate which stands at 8.1% and the growing debt deficit. Obama could have swooped in there – the door was wide open – to shine the spotlight on the fact that Romney’s state was in fact ranking in 47^th place in job creation!   So who exactly should America actually listen to when it comes to job creation! Furthermore, with Romney’s new stance on the importance of the middle class, where does the 47% of Americans that he insulted by basically referring to them as freeloaders, where do they fit? 

Romney didn’t come away completely unscathed as Obama did issue a few memorable comebacks such as when he quipped that Romney politics is equal to the politics of George W. Bush of 2001 which caused the biggest crisis since the ‘’Great Depression’’.

Conclusively, we can all agree, Romney may have won this round, but cliché as it may be to say, the battle has just begun. Perhaps Obama will bring his fighting spirit at the next one and then we can really call it a Presidential debate.