By Edwin Sam ’13, Sports Section Editor
After the typical, ever-so-cordial introductions by each candidate, Obama and Romney immediately initiated the quadrennial catfight we like to call debates. While Romney commanded the discussion early on economic issues, Obama regained control throughout the healthcare portions of the debate only to be slightly outdone in the closing sections on the role of government. On the whole, attacks were more policy based and less personal than in years past, but the debate still seemed very childish at times as both candidates constantly stepped over moderator Jim Lehrer.
Once Obama had opened with a sweet anniversary message to his wife and a brief opening statement, Romney was quick to show his empathetic side and contrast the out-of-touch tag Democrats have stuck on him throughout the campaign thus far. Only four sentences into his first address, he (at least on the surface) was fighting to ease the tax burden on middle-class families. Though Obama came into the debate viewed as Mr. Middle Class, Governor Romney challenged the title claiming his policies would better put money in the hands of middle-income
Americans. Now, will that message actually resonate with the voters on November 6th?
When the debate quickly switched to the topic of healthcare, Obama increasingly controlled the discussion showing more composure than he had in the early stages. So far this election season, an effective tactic of Obama’s (as he did with McCain) was to compare Romney to George W. Bush and connect him with the downward economic spiral of 2008. However, on the topic of healthcare, Obama set Romney not against Bush but against his own plan in Massachusetts. After President Obama asked about his healthcare plan as governor of Massachusetts, Romney showed trouble distancing his plan from Obamacare simply pointing to bipartisanship as the biggest difference between the two.
Obama showing his rust and Romney showing inexperience, each candidate missed prime opportunities to expose weaknesses in their opponents’ platforms. Firstly, while the two were on the topic of the deficit, both seemed inclined to talk about tax reform without largely mentioning spending cuts. So don’t worry Big Bird. You’re alright for now. Though he briefly and vaguely mentioned spending cuts, Romney failed to attack the topic of spending with enough vigor to change many votes. Obama, too, neglected to criticize Romney when the governor (somewhat superficially) stood as the man of the middle class.
Just as neither Obama nor Romney was effective with the actual issues, they also embarrassed themselves by showing rudeness to PBS moderator Jim Lehrer. Accepting being cut off by Governor Romney on multiple occasions, Lehrer showed a general inability to manage his debate. As a result, Obama ended up speaking for about four minutes (equivalent of two responses) longer than Romney and the governor constantly spoke over Lehrer.
In a sense, both candidates emerged victorious from this debate in their respective ways. Before the debate, Obama was clearly dominating the national discussion and talks of a landslide victory were appearing on major news stations. Now, however, Romney has shown his ability to stay on par with Obama and has definitely increased his chances of an upset in November. He also advanced (though probably not on a large scale) the effect of the Republican National Convention of humanizing Romney and showing his empathy.
Obama also won in the sense that Romney did not come out with anything particularly new. Worst case scenario for Obama would have been if Romney had actually come out with the specifics that the president has been asking for since before he even won the Republican primary. Luckily for Obama, without the emergence of specifics in many of Romney’s plans, voters and even more so the media will challenge him on his lack of details in the coming weeks.
Facing off in the next key contest will be the vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan in what could be a game-changing battle. As the youthful exuberance of Ryan clashes with venerable experience of Biden, each has a great opportunity to fix their bad perception among the public. And hopefully this time, neither will be interrupted with five seconds left in their segments.
