I seem to be the only person in the country who thought Romney didn't score a big win. Interesting.
As I saw it, the only participant who actually did well was Jim Lehrer, the silent moderator. We hate it when the refs become the story in a football game or the umps in baseball. Same deal with debates. So often the mods make it about themselves and trying to show how clever they can be. Not this guy.
He did accomplish the one job any member of the mainstream media is expected to do. He protected Obama. This was supposed to be a debate about the economy. Instead, we had long discussions of Romney's tax plan( the numbers don't add up)and his medicare plan (scary if you didn't already now medicare will go bust in a few years) and Obamacare(Romney made some good points but I've already forgotten them). What we didn't get was a discussion of how this is the worst economy in anyone's memory.
Romney had one simple task to accomplish. He had to make the election a referendum on Obama's handling of the economy. I don't think he did it. He needed to come out with facts and figures on job losses, nonexistent growth, exploding debt, and why bailouts are bad policy. He should have excoriated obama for his class warfare rhetoric. Instead, the debate really centered on Romney's tax plan, whch won't be enacted even if he is elected. It's also Obama's sweet spot because it emphasizes the tax cuts for the rich class warfare angle.
Obama had a somewhat more difficult set of tasks. First, he had to defend his sorry economic record, which became easier since it was not really ever discussed. Second, and more important, he had to convince voters that Romney was not an acceptable alternative to him. This is a time-honored political strategy used by pols with a lot of baggage. LBJ used it to devastating effect against Barry Goldwater in 1964. Nixon used it against McGovern in 1972. Bush 41 used it against Mike Dukakis. But Goldwater had made intemperate statements, so had McGovern, and Dukakis had let a vicious monster named Willie horton out on a prison furlough and Horton went on an horrific crime spree. Romney of course tortured the family dog and killed that guy's wife, but otherwise, has a pretty clean record. He didn't look like much of a monster last night. Obama had a very uphill battle to convince people that Romney was unqualified or crazy or off the rails. He tried but didn't really make the sale.
So to me, both candidates failed to accomplish their objectives. Romney was certainly presidential, but that was hardly a susrprise. I thought Obama was pretty good on the tax and medicare stuff. I guess no one else does.
