The First Debate

The first debate is now over and both sides seem to agree that Mitt Romney
won out over President Obama.  That he was tenacious and direct, while the
President seemed like he didn't want to be there.  The Right are baying at the
moon over Mitt's performace tonight, and the Left seem angry that President
Obama didn't do more.  Quick polls on the debate last night have already
come out saying that 56% of Americans have a more positive opinion of
Romney after tonight's debate.

Given the pre-debate debate, it was clear what the President was trying to do:
not appear snarky or arrogant.  In fact both candidates spent much of the first
15 minutes being very agreeable to each other with Obama nodding his
head and making extra effort to smile at Romney's responses.  This was part
of the plan, I believe, for Obama to, "do no harm," to his current polling lead.
An assessment with which even Charles Krauthammer of Fox News agrees:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/10/03/krauthammer_romney_won_big_he_won_by_two_touchdowns.html

I'll be very interested in seeing what effect this debate has on the polls in the
coming days, whether Obama's recent gains are reversed.  Certainly if there
were any Republicans who were not voting before the debate, they are now.
I'm not sure there was enough in what each of the candidates actually said
that would change many votes, but if presentation matters Romney could make
this race competitive again with only a month to go.

I said in my last post that Romney needed to be more revealing about what he
plans to do if elected.  I think Romney was very clear about his platform and
now that's more widely known.  I'm still not sure however, that he has put to
rest fears that he can be trusted to tell people what they don't want to hear.
And so I think Romney still has work to do seal the deal, but it's clear that
Romney really wants to be President (unlike McCain 4 years ago) and that
his supporters are now activated for the remainder of the campaign.