Romney came out of the gate at a full sprint. President Obama seemed to lean against the gate and yawn the entire "race". As one person on Twitter put it, Obama seemed like someone trying desperately to end a phone conversation.
What Romney had going for him:
- A previously unseen amount of aggressiveness.
- He fought for time to speak, and fought for the topics that were addressed.
- He single-handedly controlled the subject matter for the majority of the debate, speaking only on topics that he wanted to talk about, and on his terms.
- He opened up about a few topics he previously has refused to address or awkwardly dodged answering.
- He looked at Obama while responding and while listening.
- He didn't wear a spray tan to this event.
- He mastered a very good condescending look.
- As Frederick E. Allen from Forbes said, " Mitt Romney "may have said things that were clearly untrue ... but he said them convincingly."
What Romney had against him:
- Romney has never been as far right as his party wants him to be, but last night he moved even further to left to appear as a moderate -- which according to his policies, he is not.
- He claimed things last night about medicare and social security that he has opposed leading up to the debate.
- He backs his statistics with studies performed by his campaign managers and denies the veracity of non-partisan independent studies that contradict him.
- He continues to claim that his budget accounts for raising revenue even when independent studies prove that it does not add up. He can clearly can count to five, but it appears that numbers higher than that will require a tutor.
- Romney continued to be ambiguous by saying I will create jobs, I will balance the budget, but not saying how.
- He claims to care for elderly and the poor, but they make up over half of the 47% that he said take no responsibility for their lives and that its not his "job to care for those people".
- Romney also spent a lot of time attacking the president and his policies more than he did talking about what he plans to do differently.
- Romney was perhaps too aggressive, cutting of the moderator and his opponent repeatedly which made him come across as inconsiderate and a bully.
- Got really worked up at times and spoke so fast he stumbled over his words and kept talking for the sake of talking and not saying anything of value
What President Obama had going for him:
- Honestly, not much.
- President Obama did not spend the majority of his time attacking Romney for his plans the way Romney attacked him.
- He was very civil and respectful, and did not cut Romney off
- Only cut of Jim once
- Didn't say he'd fire Jim or Big Bird.
What President Obama had against him:
- President Obama pointed out the holes in Romney's policies and the ambiguous statements he had previously made, but he did not call Romney out on his contradictions to previous stances during the debate.
- He hardly looked at Romney throughout the debate.
- He answered Romney's statements by addressing the moderator and not Romney.
- He refused to look at Romney when speaking or listening.
- He looked down at his notes as if he was nervous or bored. He did not seem interested or prepared to answer Romney's allegations.
- The fact that it was his 20th wedding anniversary probably played a minor role in his performance, though no one can blame that entirely for his poor performance
- Obama was never a good debater, he does best when he can carefully structure thoughts without time constraints to clearly articulate his thoughts.
