Romney Wins Over Obama In First Debate Decision

Let’s get right to it. Obama got handled by Mitt Romney in the debate. It’s unfortunate and I probably won’t sleep well tonight but it is what it is. Surely over the next few days the fact checkers will come out and disprove a lot of things Romney said but he’s not about facts, nor is his party. Representatives have said as much before. Even though Romney spread a lot of misinformation, he still topped Obama in the debate.

Mitt Romney won because he led the conversation. He dictated the topics he wanted to debate the President on, the stuff he prepared for and wanted to say. Obama followed the trail that Mitt put down which put him in defense mode instead of the lead position. It didn’t matter that Romney wasn’t being truthful because he delivered words with conviction and chastised the man in charge. Barack Obama stayed on the ropes instead of calling Mittens out on his BS every time it came out. Whenever Obama lobbied against a Romney answer Mitt responded with, “that’s not true”  and Obama left it at that instead of showing what was wrong with Romney’s answers. Mittens brought his gloves to the ring.

I’m not saying that Mitt was right, just that he sold it better. Let’s face it, probably 99% of the people will not look up his claims or Obama’s. People are going to take what was said at face value. I bet fact checkers are going to rip holes all through Romney’s discourse but the audience for that isn’t going to be anywhere near the size of those that watched the debate. Therefore that tree is going to fall in the woods with no one around to hear the sound.

Obama held back a lot of ammo. He was either taken aback by his opponents aggressiveness or wasn’t ready. He wasn’t the hero we deserved tonight. Obama didn’t chin check Romney when he should have.

Those dirty 47%
We heard nothing about the 47%. Arguably one of the most devastating self-destructive Romney  statements was the recording of his remarks about the 47%. Since that came to light, he’s lost points to Obama and even major backers have started funneling money to other Republican candidates in various races. Where was this in the conversation tonight?

Obamacare/Romneycare
Obama’s health care reform compares with the one that Mitt Romney enacted in Massachusetts. Mittens flipped the comparison well. The plans are essentially the same, written by the same guy even. Mitt and his party have been dancing around this the whole campaign because they want to repeal Obama’s campaign promise win but only because it came from Obama. When pressed on it finally, Mitt pulled a judo move and said the plan is great for the states individually but not at a federal level.

The Medicare cut
Obama shouldn’t have let that $716 billion dollar Medicare slash float out there without clarifying. Romney put that number out there and there was no real rebuttal to Romney’s misinformation.

I care about creating jobs!
How many times did Governor Romney say this all night? We know this isn’t true. Not once did Obama check him on his outsourcing history of American jobs. Obama could have even pulled some lines from Clinton’s speech highlighting that Republican leadership isn’t a job creating one. This was an open shot to bring about Bain Capital and Romney’s pioneering efforts to send American jobs overseas.

Republican obstructionism
Romney tried to hammer home points that Obama didn’t reach the goals he set out to reach. He also painted the picture that coming into office facing Democrats in his state he had to learn to reach across the aisle. Ironically this has been one of the biggest criticisms of Obama’s presidency. Many think Obama tried too often and too long to reach across the aisle even though every time he did, he got his hand slapped back at him. Mitt tried to use the health care bill passing without bipartisan support as an example. The problem with Mitt’s words is that it is because of the Republican mission to deny anything that Obama tried to do that there was no bipartisan support. The Republicans simply  would not play ball even after compromises and suggestions they themselves proposed were included. The fact of the matter is, the reputation of the party was so badly damaged by Bush that they couldn’t let a Democrat win or they would look even worse. They were willing to play games with the lives of Americans and the stability of the country to salvage their public face. Obama didn’t point any of this out and let Romney’s words stand.

$5 trillion dollar tax cut
Obama kept repeating it and Romney kept denying it. The problem is Obama never said what that tax cut was or how it was going to reach such an astronomical figure. The fact is, this has been answered before and Obama is correct. Politifact vetted the $5 trillion details back in May and found Obama’s figures to add up. All Obama had to do was clarify what he was talking about so the point wouldn’t wind up on the floor of a he said she said exchange.

Those are just a few points. I don’t know what happened out there. Everyone has an off night but tonight was not the time to have one. Obama didn’t fail miserably and go down in flames completely. He executed the same calm level-headed arguments that we’ve come to expect from the President. He let Romney get away with far more than he should though. Many speculated that Romney would pull out the Reagan “well there you go again” line but I was hoping Obama would have used it. Obama had a few moments where he sounded like he was starting to speak from his chest but they didn’t stay around. I think he was aware that he wasn’t gaining the traction he wanted. Did you see how he checked the moderator for his 5 seconds? He was frustrated.

Somehow I don’t foresee Biden overwhelming Ryan in their upcoming exchange. Hopefully the Obama/Biden team will take a hint from tonight and adjust accordingly. Romney/Ryan are playing to win regardless if they are being factual or not. We saw the same thing in the Republican speeches at the RNC. Facts can trump lies and misinformation, they just have to actually be presented to shut them down. I don’t believe Mitt will get the drop on Barack the next time around though.

In the end, they both punked host Jim Lehrer. That’s just my two cents. What do you think?

 Loading ...

By the way, Romney, the streets are watching. Big Bird has words for you.

I’d do what the 7 foot tall talking bird says if I were you.

Read the full debate transcript.

Jaylon Carter

Jaylon Carter is a blogger, social media marketing consultant, former Congressional Campaign Media & Communications Director, national labor union vice block leader, and a Hip Hop artist who performs under the stage name Timid (@timidmc).