The First Debate

Thoughts from students....

In my opinion, a plus for Romney in the debate is that voters expected Romney to come out with a boom in the first debate and prove himself to America that he is the best choice of candidate. With this on his conscience, I'm sure he prepared adequately and well enough to be ready for the debate, which I think he was by his confident poise he held throughout the entire debate.

A plus for Obama is that this was not his first Presidential debate. With the experience, he was able to execute the questions asked.

I don't think Obama or Romney made any critical mistakes.

“And congratulations to you, Mr. President, on your anniversary. I’m sure this was the most romantic place you could imagine — here with me!” I thought this was pretty humorous and my favorite line of the night.

I think Romney came out ahead. I started watching the debate 28 minutes in and I couldn't help but notice Obama's stressed, long face while Romney seemed alive and comfortable. A political science professor, Paul Sracic, at Youngstown State University said "Romney won. The real surprise is that he won so clearly." I think Romney had a crisp performance while Obama seemed to stray away from a direct fight.
- Allison

Positive for Romney: had multiple clever Zingers
Postive for Obama: Got good "blurbs" from specific things Romney spoke about for adds.
Mistakes: Obama looked unhappy and uninterested in being there. Romneye half-smirk appeared creepy to many viewers. Romney also interupted the moderater multiple times and if you watched you could tell Lehrer was getting impatient.

Best LINES: Donald Trump is small business. And I know Donald trump doesn’t like to think of himself as small anything.-Obama

“I’m sorry, Jim, I’m gonna stop the subsidy to PBS… I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too.”- Romney

OAccording to many journalist and many news stations, Romney came out ahead.

- Emily


I found that one major plus for Romney in last night's debate was his body behavior.  During the debate Romney would look straight at Obama when speaking and continue holding a half-smile, presenting himself as being strong and comfortable.  One plus for Obama last night was that he was very polite to both Mitt Romney and the moderator throughout the debate.  I felt like neither candidate said anything that could severely hurt them in the next campaign.  I feel like Romney had a stronger night that Obama overall.  Obama often looked at the ground and seemed very irritated throughout the night, while Romney came across as strong and laid-back.  Also, Obama's stance on taxation dealing with small businesses was criticized harshly by Romney. Romney pointed out that Obama is taxing the upper 3% of small businesses more money while they employ more than a quarter of the workforce in America; this forces the businesses to either raise their prices on products or cut spending by laying off employees.
- Riley

Mitt Romney won the debate last night, which makes it a good restart of his campaign. A plus for Romney is that people got to see what he looks like standing next the President of the United States, so voters can better imagine Romney as president. A plus for Obama was when Romney denied he had a 5 trillion dollar tax cut plan and he had been talking about it for weeks before the debate. Obama made a mistake when he didn't mention the 47% comments that Romney had said. The presidential race is even closer than it was before the debate with Obama still ahead, but because of the debate Romney will surely get a "bump" in his points.

- Savannah