Last night, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney faced off in Denver at the first of three presidential debates in order to give the American people a better look at their vision for America.
VIDEOS: Round One! Obama And Romney Go Head-To-Head
For undecided voters and those not paying close attention to the campaign, the debates presented a clear contrast between the two candidates and their plans if elected president in November.
Throughout the debate, Obama maintained a calm, cool and poised demeanor, while Romney set the stage on fire using aggression and vigor to attack the incumbent’s record on jobs and the economy. Obama’s dignified approach came across as passive and he seemed to miss out on key opportunities to combat Romney’s fabricated truths and stance on the economy, taxes and healthcare.
This may have hurt the Democratic candidate, as a CBS poll of undecided voters shows that 46 percent say that Romney championed the debate and only 22 percent say Obama walked away in victory. 56 percent also said they view Romney in a better light, 11 percent says they have a worse opinion of him and 32 percent said their opinion was unchanged.
However, Obama was successful in highlighting Romney’s plan to privatize Medicare and turn it into an unpopular voucher system. He said:
“The essence of the plan is that you would turn Medicare into a voucher program. It’s called premium support, but it’s understood to be a voucher program.”
Obama explained:
“When you move to a voucher system, you’re putting seniors at the mercy of those insurance companies and over time, if traditional Medicare has decayed or fallen apart, then they’re stuck.”
Romney struck back, portraying Obama’s Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) out to be a government takeover of healthcare, but Obama reasoned:
“If you repeal Obamacare — and I have become fond of this term, “Obamacare,” if you repeal it, what happens is those seniors right away are going to be paying $600 more [for] prescriptions. They’re now going to have to be paying copays for basic checkups that can keep them healthier. And the primary beneficiary of that repeal are insurance companies, that are estimated to gain billions of dollars back when they aren’t making seniors any healthier.”
The President also noted that Romney plans to cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans by reducing all the tax rates by 20 percent. This would cost $5 trillion and benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. Romney shot back with vigor stating, “Virtually everything he just said about my tax plan is inaccurate.”
Both candidates also offered a few clever one-liners. Obama captured the nation when he blasted Romney for his refusal to talk about the details of his plans for the country:
“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.”
On the topic of regulation, Obama said:
“So the question is, does anybody out there think that the big problem we had is that there was too much oversight and regulation of Wall Street? Because, if you do, then Governor Romney is your candidate.”
Romney’s best line of the night, by far, was his controversial threat to firing a very popular Sesame Street muppet:
“I’m sorry Jim. I’m gonna stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m gonna stop other things. I like PBS. I like Big Bird. I actually like you too.”
Romney also accused the President of lying, and compared him to his sons:
“Look, I have five boys, I’m used to people saying something that isn’t always true and keep on saying it hoping ultimately I will believe it. That is not the case.”
Who do you think won round one of the presidential debate?
Check out the debate in its entirety above.
