What was at stake in Denver
The debates, a regular feature of the American presidential campaigns since 1960, allow a chance to measure up the leaders. The Commission on Presidential Debates has announced four presidential debates that would harp on various domestic and foreign policies.
The first 2012 presidential debate was held at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado and was moderated by Jim Lehrer. The Denver debate is said to have generated 10 million tweets.
The first debate was widely seen as one of Romney's last chances to turn the election in his favour. Following the Denver debate, the Gallup poll suggested that 50% of likely voters preferred Romney over Obama.
Click here for complete transcript of the debate (Source: nytimes.com).
Advantage Romney or deuce?
Romney appeared to dominate the first high-stake presidential debate at Denver. He gained momentum by accusing Obama of failure to lead the country out of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Romney critiqued the president's first-term record on economy, healthcare, job creation and deficit reduction. His enthusiasm seemed to overshadow Obama and offered the Republican campaign the lift that they had been seeking.
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The president responded by attacking Romney's tax plan, saying it would cut taxes on the rich, and for failing to explain how he would offset it so that it would not add to budget deficit.
According to the political pundits Romney focused his entire debate on job creation, while Obama tried to deal the issue of deficit. To quote Romney: "I don't want to cut jobs. My priority is jobs. Get the rates down, lower deductions and exemptions to create more jobs, because there's nothing better for getting us to a balanced budget than having more people working, earning more money, paying more taxes. That's by far the most effective and efficient way to get this budget balanced."
The Republican leader also cashed in on a weak economic growth and 8.1% unemployment that left Obama vulnerable in his bid for a second term in the White House.
Being repeatedly pushed to the defensive by Romney on jobs front, Obama at one point of time even said to the moderator that he wanted to move on to another topic.
"The approach that Governor Romney's talking about is the same sales pitch that was made in 2001 and 2003. And we ended up with the slowest job growth in 50 years. We ended up moving from surplus to deficits. And it all culminated in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression," said Obama.
Romney countered: "You've been president four years. You said you'd cut the deficit in half. It's now four years later. We still have trillion-dollar deficits."
The 90-minute prime-time showdown was an online sensation with the channels reporting a near record viewership.
Soon after, a CNN and CBS flash polls declared Romney the winner . Romney was voted by 67% of the registered voters, while Obama got just 25%.
Obama's performance in Denver was deemed lacklustre, with the polls showing that the race has narrowed both nationally and in the key battleground states.
Watch the leaders debate at Denver: (Source: youtube.com)
That was not the real Romney I debated: Obama
Post the Denver debate, Obama accused Romney of being dishonest on a host of policy issues and accused him of glossing over details of his economic plan. He hit back at Romney for saying that he hadn't heard of tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs, despite being known as a "pioneer" of companies that have outsourced in the past.
"When I got on the stage, I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney. But I know it couldn't have been Mitt Romney -- because the real Mitt Romney has been running around the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts that favour the wealthy," he said.
Obama had also stated that "Whoever it was that was on stage last night doesn't want to be held accountable for what the real Mitt Romney has been saying for the last year, and that's because he knows full well that we don't want what he's been selling over the last year."
Rearn about Mitt Romney's 10 most baseless claims at the Denver debate (Source: huffingtonpost.com)
The road ahead
The second presidential debate is to be held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York on Tuesday October 16.
It is reported that the Obama campaign would make adjustments in its election strategy given the impressive performance of Romney. Obama will look to be more aggressive the next time he faces Romney. In a telephonic interview to a radio show Obama had said that he had been "too polite" in dealing with Romney.
He has termed the Denver debate as a 'bad night' and said that he is confident of winning the November 6 election.
"This was one event. We have got four weeks to go. Nobody is going to be fighting harder than I am...What they need is to make sure they tune in on Tuesday next week," he said.
Though Romney has been flying high after the first debate, and seems to be gaining grounds against Obama, we must not forget that the game of politics is tricky. Tables can turn at any moment, and opinions can change.
Acknowledging that this is going to be a close race, Obama has been insisting on winning the presidential election.
As the world awaits the new US president, here's a quote of hope from Obama for all his followers: "Governor Romney may dance around his positions, he may do a tap dance and a two-step, but if you want to be President, then you owe the American people the truth".
With a race so close, any slipup at this point in time, especially in the forthcoming debates could have gross consequences.
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