Don Roach: Why President Obama Won Last Night’s Debate

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Don Roach, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

Now this was a debate. Coming off his smackdown two weeks ago, Mitt Romney was hoping to score another decisive victory over President Obama. Obama, for his part, was looking to rebound from his ‘bad night’ and show the American people that we should give him another four years in office. The two candidates traded barbs throughout the night, neither conceding an inch.

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So who won the debate?

First of all, Obama brought a much better debate game-plan and looked like he wanted to win. Unlike two weeks ago where he looked as though he’d rather be doing something else (knitting?) than making the case for why we should elect him, came out spirited and on the attack. He attacked Romney at almost every turn on every issue. Obama said that Obamacare is much like Romneycare and Romney is looking to repeal Obamacare. He talked about Romney’s alleged $5 trillion budget gap with no clear plans to close it. He also spoke about Romney’s intent to defund Planned Parenthood. Unless I missed it, there wasn’t a mention of the 47% comments Romney made several months ago. I’m sure Obama pollsters have probably come to the realization that it just doesn’t connect with voters and Romney’s record shows that he can’t defend himself against that comment.

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Nonetheless, I believe the President’s attacks hit their mark at times. One example that seemed to resonate was when Obama responded to Romney’s attack about the administration’s lack of calling the murder of our Libyian diplomat an ‘act of terrorism’. Obama seemed visibly upset that Romney was ‘distorting’ the record. The moderator informed Romney that the day after the assassination the President did indeed call it an act of terror. However, if you look closer at the details, the Obama administration did not continue to call the assassination an act of terror days afterwards and instead attributed it to a spontaneous occurrence. Nonetheless, from a pure debate standpoint Obama won that battle standing up to Romney’s attacks and getting an assist from the moderator who agreed with Obama.

Speaking of moderator assists, throughout the night Obama was usually between 3-5 minutes ahead of Romney in speaking time. I do believe the moderator took note of this and often allowed Romney to catch up, to the President’s chagrin, but I found it odd that Romney never gained a 3-5 minute edge at any time during the debate. Having more time to get your point across certainly aides in winning a debate, especially someone as rhetorically gifted as Obama. If I’m on the Romney team I’m definitely making a point about this for the third debate.

Getting back to the content of the debate, what is becoming very clear to me is this – if this election is about Foreign Policy & Healthcare Obama will win. If the election is about the economy & can you believe it, immigration, Romney will be able to eek out a victory. Romney scored significant points when discussing the economy and had, in my opinion, his moment of the night when discussing gas prices. Romney spoke about how gas prices have gone through the roof under the Obama administration and he said that if Obama’s policies had been working then gas prices would not be where they are today. He kept hammering this point over and over again, and as I watched CNN’s undecided voter flash poll, Romney was scoring with it.

Romney also seemed to do much better when the talks turned toward immigration and that surprised me. Romney told the President that he didn’t keep his promise to introduce immigration reform in his first year of office and Romney promised he would. The American public has not forgotten that Obama didn’t keep his word on this point and he should have taken the opportunity in 2009 when his party held both houses in Congress. Romney laid out his immigration plan which is a moderate plan and he seemed much more committed to it than Obama, quite honestly.

When the debate turned to foreign policy, Obama had much to stand on. He has gotten most of the troops out of Iraq, has killed Osama bin Laden, and has been consistent on his position not to entangle us in wars where we have no true national security interests. Romney’s attempts to tear down the president’s record were not nearly as affective as his economic attacks against the President. Perhaps that is why Romney won the last debate so decisively where the focus was on the economy. Romney wins on the economy but Obama has a clear victory on foreign policy.

Overall, as much as I do not want to admit this, I give the smallest of margins to Obama. Obama had the most to prove given his first performance and he did that and then some. He went blow for blow for Romney without batting an eye. Still, Romney was up to the task and was relentless in attacking the President time and again. I give a small edge to Obama because showed America why they elected him in the first place in 2008. I expect Obama to grab a little poll momentum, maybe a point, from this debate but let me be clear, Romney performed admirably at this debate. Romney has a clear vision and plan that he articulates very well and that is connecting with voters. Heck, if Romney can connect with me he’s done an incredible job of ensuring his message is palatable for middle America.

At the end of the day though, this was a photo finish victory for Obama and we turn our attention to the last debate. That evening will be the candidates’ last chance to reach out to voters en masse. The ball is now in Romney’s court to improve his game for the third and final debate. But this night belongs to the high gas pricing, deficit raising, economic killing President.

 

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