"As predicted, the president did have the debate on television last night in the Indian Treaty Room of the residence while he was reviewing his nightly to-do list... His main takeaway is that the candidate that he strongly supports is the candidate that performed quite strongly in the debate last night," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.
"(Clinton) made a very powerful case, particularly at the beginning, for building on the economic progress that this country has made in digging out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression," he told reporters.
That is precisely the economic strategy Obama has pursued and that is the "strategy that has yielded the longest streak of consecutive monthly job growth numbers in US history."
Earnest cautioned people against complacency. "The president believes that people all across the country not be complacent when the stakes are so high." he said.
The debate, first of the three planned ahead of the November 8 elections, was watched by an expected television audience of up to 100 million.