Presidential Debate Obama VS Romney Round 1

[Agent Sorchus]

I think Romney won a defensive victory largely due to his lower expectations although he was an incredibly high strung and nervous speaker.

Romney can't have a defensive victory as a challenger. It has to be decisive since there are numerous disadvantages the non-incumbent has during the election. However, he will probably pick up some points as is the trend historically but almost equally assuredly so will Obama, since at this point in the race the base is saying they'll vote for their party and the only question is how many are actually going to vote. All pickups are in the middle.

[Mr Bean]

Agreed with Knife. I'm beginning to think that part of O's strategy tonight was to lull R into a false sense of security...call me stupid, crazy, whatev, but I do wonder.

I don't since a force full performance would have provided two weeks of Romney is doomed and holy shit there's less than a month left. Two weeks from now Obama is still up by nine and NOW what.

You don't need to play rope a dope when the other guy is on the fucking mats already.

[Mr Bean]

OAN, thank you snap polls, Romney won them all by 40 point margins.

[Lord Falcon]

Be honest with me: Have we lost Obama? Because if we have, I will kill myself.

[Mr Bean]

Be honest with me: Have we lost Obama? Because if we have, I will kill myself.

Maybe it's the booze talking, but your over dramatic as fuck kid. They are both corporate welfare promoters. The difference is on social issues and on which corperatorons they nurture, and Obama's are less damaging to America while Romeny's friends destroyed the economy a few years back.

To note they WERE Obama's friends but left after he said something a tiny bit nasty about them.

[Havok]

Man, this was like reading a thread in testing. I thought N&P had higher standards.

Here is the thing, Romney is the challenger, he needed a decisive win to have any effect on the "undecided" that each party needs to sway. Other than that, he is just the guy the President is talking to.

What is the saying... We could beat him 99 out of 100 and he is still the King, he defeats us once and we are dead.

I'm with Dalton though, I have a feeling that there is going to be an ad campaign coming soon showing Romney's contradictory statements. It all feels like a well laid and elaborate trap.

[JME2]

It's the first round and while i wish he'd done better, I'm willing to give Obama a fair pass.

But I'm scared in a way I haven't been since just before Nov. 2008. I'm terrified of a Republican victory, of President Mittens, and that such a victory will be the downward spiral of this country and my generation.

[Lord Falcon]

I agree, JM. If Romney wins, we are ALL doomed.

[The Vortex Empire]

Haha, could you be more overdramatic?

[Meest]

Think Obama is a bit too nice and polite but at the same time can be attacked for being an angry black man. He can find a middle ground though. He does have to drop his opinion of the American public, gives them too much credit and thinks the "truth" will prevail or being the better man works instead of hammering home easy shots. He addresses points so verbose and politely it gets lost, maybe it's just the news coverage drooling for a huge headline but he does address things. He counters a lie from Romney but in the process makes it so he doesn't get credit for it, he'll say something like "we both agree on this part but he's wrong on this", cut that crap out, say where he's wrong don't try to bridge some common ground. Guess that's the typical weak democrat in him, I actually don't mind "angry" Obama mode and seems people want that, or too scared to get Howard Dean'd.

Not sure the responsibility of the moderator to cut through the outright lies or bullshit or if that falls to the debater to point that out and make sure it's addressed, Romney weaseled through most of it and wasn't really pressed to stick to an answer. Just sad that it seems information and facts get less and less important even though we have tons of more access to it. Didn't change my opinion on Romney was same old stuff just more blinking eyes and awkward fake politeness.

[Zinegata]

Stop panicking. Romney is too much of a flip-flopper to destroy the country if he wins.

I only caught the first part of the debate, but it felt weird. It basically went:

<Obama> I believe in ABC!
<Romney> I believe in ABC!
<Obama> Romney is full of fail!
<Romney> Obama is full of fail!

<Zine> You are BOTH promising the same things!

Did it get better later on? Or did just continue for an excruciating period of time so we should probably have the moderator Commissar'd?

[Coop D'etat]

Man, this was like reading a thread in testing. I thought N&P had higher standards.

Here is the thing, Romney is the challenger, he needed a decisive win to have any effect on the "undecided" that each party needs to sway. Other than that, he is just the guy the President is talking to.

What is the saying... We could beat him 99 out of 100 and he is still the King, he defeats us once and we are dead.

I'm with Dalton though, I have a feeling that there is going to be an ad campaign coming soon showing Romney's contradictory statements. It all feels like a well laid and elaborate trap.

Pretty much. I think Romney won himself a couple good days on the news cycle and a bounce in the polls from standing next to the incumbent as an equal and looking plausible as a POTUS.

He also didn't manage to do anything that people will look back on as changing the nature of the current horse race. Guy has only a month to get a lead in popular opinion and doesn't have enough time left for incremental improvements to get him there. Especially since recent elections have tightened up so much there is very few persuadable voters available to influence.

Obama missed a large number of chances to do some damage in terms of winning a debate, but he didn't need to win and a TKO loss is fine for him. This was also set to be his worst debate, he's far more vulnerable on domestic policy than foreign policy and hasn't had a debate in 4 years compared to the gamut Romney went through. Eking out a small loss is fine for him. He had the openings for about 5 lines of attack like he ended on (the can't say no to extremists one) he had an opening to attack on Romney failing arithimatic he didn't stay on for example, or his incredibly weak finish on Romney's lack of policy details. That could have helped him win the debate but that should be water under the bridge.

It also helps Obama that he lost a snooze-fest that I bet a lot of people changed the channel on.

But this is inside baseball stuff. Its for the people that like politics as a non-contact sport. I don't think its a big deal for an election.

[Dalton]

Be honest with me: Have we lost Obama? Because if we have, I will kill myself.

Are you fucking with us?

[Flagg]

Be honest with me: Have we lost Obama? Because if we have, I will kill myself.

Are you fucking with us?

I hope not. Because he is priceless. Like a rare jewel fished out of a gorilla turd...

[Gaidin]

I don't think he's fucking with you. He's on a high, such as it is. Enough of my friends and family are too. They think Romney just got the lead when all that can be guaranteed is Romney got a length closer in the turn and maybe pulled a muscle doing it. He either hates his high or is loving it, take your pick, but it's a high.

[Knife]

LOL, I stand by my statements, even with the morning news nothing but ROMNEY WINS DEBATE. Obama led Romney around and made him react to what the President was saying. Now, Romney has comments on a national stage that contradict his other campaign bullet points. I also though Obama's zingers were better, both in content and in delivery. And I really do believe people in their 50's and early 60's are paying close attention to what Romney and Ryan are saying.

LOL the second, didn't that thread start around this time last cycle about how McCain was pulling ahead and going to win, WE ARE ALL DOOOOOMED!

[JME2]

Sorry about being dramatic last night, but I just want Obama to kick his ass, not take hits like this.

[Dalton]

We have three more debates to go. Historically, as per Nate Silver, the challenger tends to do better than the incumbent in the first debate.

On another note, I've calculated that the impact of cutting PBS funding would have the same effect on, say, $1T that cutting $44 would have on $100k.

[Channel72]

I don't really see how Obama did that badly. He pointed out many times how Romney's various plans have no concrete details, particularly how Romney's plan to reduce debt doesn't work out mathematically, as well as the fact that Obamacare is basically just a federal version of Romney's plan in Massachusetts. My own impression was that Obama started off a bit weak, but as the debate progressed the two of them performed more or less equally. I'm surprised the polls are favoring Romney so strongly as the winner - I thought it would be more or less 50-50 along partisan lines.

On the other hand, I'm surprised Romney was actually pretty coherent and addressed points directly, rather than just blurting out non-sequitur talking points as I've come to expect from the current crop of post-Tea Party Republicans.

[JME2]

One other fun piece of fallout: the Sesame Street fans are mobilizing in response to Mittens' pledge to gut PBS. They've even set up their own Twitter feed.

[Knife]

I think the problem is people, progressives, wanted Obama to eviscerate Romney, leave him on the floor in a intellectual coma. I some how doubt that was any where near the plan. That sort of thing is just meat for the base.

[Malivotti]

Since I'm not in the US I didn't watch it live but in somber reflection this was the most animated I've Mitt Romney in a bit. Was it just me or was this another 'Etch-A-Sketch' moment on the Romney team?

Second, President Obama did miss a few points and as someone pointed out he lacked a certain bloodthirsty impulse to go for throat of Mitt Romney when Romney really needed to be called out for his lies/distortions. Which has been President Obama's problem the last 4 years, rather than be a statesman Obama needs to channel Samuel Jackson when dealing with Congress and Wall Street.

Also I want Colbert to the debate moderator from now on.

[Raw Shark]

Be honest with me: Have we lost Obama? Because if we have, I will kill myself.

Chill out, Emo Kid, Obama's location is known: He's doing an appearance on the west side, by Sloan's Lake right now.

[DarkSilver]

Be honest with me: Have we lost Obama? Because if we have, I will kill myself.

Chill out, Emo Kid, Obama's location is known: He's doing an appearance on the west side, by Sloan's Lake right now.

god damn it....I don't want to...but that's just a hilarious response.



At anyrate. . .

I'd have given the debate to Romney by a slim margin because he seemed more vocal and "active" even as he was spewing lies and making himself a etch-a-sketch candidate on the stage. He basically became Governor Romney Mk 2.0 and left Campaign Trail Romney v7.5 somewhere in the dust of the latest remold.

Historically, Incumbents do not perform so very well on the first debate of the "season" while the challengers tend to win. I think we'll see more when it comes to the second and third Presidental debates later this month.

Until this...We have the VP debates next week. Hopefully they "Unleash the Biden!" a bit and let him rip Ryan a new one.

[Pint0 Xtreme]

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight asserts that historical data would suggest that Romney is looking at a projected boost of 2.2 percentage points, which is a real shame since I was starting to feel a bit comfortable with Obama's lead. The President better make a considerable comeback after ceding so much ground to Romney.