Presidential debate... Interesting Article.. JR.

Last updated: October 4, 2012 11:29 am

Romney dominates presidential debate

By Richard McGregor in Denver

                

An energetic and aggressive Mitt Romney challenged Barack Obama for “not getting the job done in government”, dominating the president for large parts of their first televised debate of the campaign which covered the economy, taxes and healthcare.

Mr Romney, displaying the desperation of a candidate who went into Wednesday evening behind in the polls, was aggressive in his attacks on Mr Obama for following a policy of what he called “trickle-down government”.

But the Republican challenger may have opened up problems for himself on policy issues such as tax and aged care, taking positions that Obama campaign officials said would play badly with voters in pivotal swing states.

Mr Romney said he would “absolutely” not ask for more revenue, saying budgets were “never” balanced by raising taxes, and insisted that his pledge to cut tax rates by 20 per cent across the board would not lift the deficit.

However, if Mr Romney’s aim was to convince the electorate, and the media, that he was still competitive, then his campaign will count the debate as a large success.

“Tens of millions of voters saw him tonight for the first time outside of 30-second attack ads, and got the real measure of the man,” said Ed Gillespie, a senior Romney adviser.

Jim Messina, Mr Obama’s campaign manager, said critics of the president’s low-key performance “had made the same complaints” after his speech at the Democratic party’s Charlotte convention.

“I think the president did exactly what he had to do, which was to talk about the substance of the issues,” he said in the post-debate “spin room”, where advisers to both men lined up to tell journalists why their candidate won the night.

Mr Romney was by far the more engaged debater, often speaking over the moderator, Jim Lehrer, and addressing Mr Obama directly, while the president often looked down and took notes.

“The status quo is not going to cut it,” said Mr Romney.

He also took issue with many of Mr Obama’s criticisms, especially of his tax policy, budgets and reforms of Medicare, the government’s aged healthcare programme.

After Mr Obama criticised Mr Romney’s tax cuts of “$5,000bn” which he said would not be paid for, Mr Romney replied: “Virtually everything he just said about my tax plan is inaccurate.”

Later, in the same vein, he said: “Mr president, you’re entitled to your own aeroplane and your own house, but not your own facts.”

But Mr Obama focused on what he said was the lack of detail in Mr Romney’s policies, a line of attack that his campaign believes will continue to be fruitful.

“At some point the American people have to ask themselves: Is the reason Governor Romney is keeping all these plans secret, is it because they’re going to be too good? Because middle class families benefit too much? No.”