30 thoughts on “CSPAN LiveStream Presidential Debate 10-3-12”

  4. Neither of them is telling us what will really happen.
    Obama will keep doing what he is doing, and that will be a disaster.
    Reducing spending on NPR and other junk programs will not reduce spending enough. He had to take on entitlements. He isn’t going to say that because it would hurt him politically.

    This debate isn’t amounting to much.
    Quoting AARP doesn’t impress me. Not favorably.

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  5. Oh brother. They call this a debate? More like a finger pointing contest. They keep saying the same things over and over again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

    What a bunch of worthless verbage.

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  7. I think there’s quite a bit of substance in this debate, actually. And I’m already seeing where the debate’s being called for Romney. This summary from a group of Dem friends: Obama needs to go to debating school.

    Poor Jim Lehrer, though. He’s getting walked all over tonight. 😦

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  8. And just in terms of general impressions about the two candidates on stage together for first time — Obama looks very uncomfortable to me, even irritated at times.

    Romney so far has managed to remain calm, unrattled, pleasant, energetic, articulate — very aggressive without being a jerk. (Well, unless you’re Jim Lehrer. Then he probably seems like a bit of a jerk right now.)

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  10. Both of them have been jerks to Jim Lehrer. I’m glad that I’m not in his seat.

    Both of them are a bit short on specifics. But I think I understand Romney’s vision better for having a chance to hear from him.

    If Romney keeps his foot out of his mouth he might just get a bump in the polls from this.

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  13. We don’t have TV, so I was reduced to reading tweets by Donna and Eric Metaxas. Laugh out loud funny. I sounds like the president struggled despite having I’ve more minutes of air time, and Jim Lehrer fell apart?

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  15. I noticed the ties too.

    But Obama really seems awkward, defensive, annoyed, even a bit like a teenager being lectured by someone who is more mature (but who is lecturing him in a way that isn’t condescending, because he really does want the boy to learn from his suggestions and not tune him out).

    I was young and heavily biased during the Carter/Reagan debates, but unless those were so badly mismatched, I have never seen one in which one candidate (and the president at that) looks so badly out of his league. I predict a bounce in the polls.

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  16. Donna, not “couting” blinks, but did notice times in which Obama’s blinks are embarrassingly excessive. It looks like he can’t wait to get this over with.

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  17. Yes, poor Jim Lehrer. As a reporter I always feel for the guys in that role, trying to control two very assertive politicians who have everything at stake.

    Every time Romney ignored his attempts to interject when it was time to move on, Lehrer would just sit back, his eyelids briefly closing with a flutter of resignation. 😦

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  21. Obama overall did seem defensive, even “churlish” (as Karl Rove put it on Twitter) as the debate went on.

    Not sure it’ll turn the race upside down, but I think Romney scored some points with this one, which he badly needed.

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  22. I’m watching MSNBC right now. If I had any doubt that Romney won, they’ve fixed that. They’re in shock that Obama didn’t hammer Mitt, was looking anywhere but the camera, and just seemed flat. They’re not happy. Chris Mathews is spitting all over he’s so mad. I think Obama let them down.

    🙂

    Mitt was not bad, firm, but not too pushy. He hammered Obama on his failures in the economy, jobs, debt, green fiasco, you name it. Obama had no defense. Reality is funny like that.

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  23. The main point is that Romney effectively stood up to Obama in a civil way. This is exactly what Reagan achieved in his debate with Carter. In effect Romney proved that he has the necessary presidential timber.

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  24. I’m reading Nicholas Kristoff’s FB comments–not all 600+ of course, and they are all over the map; most not happy about the President’s lackluster showing interspersed with insistent posts that Romney lied.

    I find that curious–lied? But I never accuse people of lying, so maybe it’s me.

    Thanks for differentiating me from Mrs. O. 🙂

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  25. Bill Kristol sums up the debate correctly as follows:

    Mitt Romney stood and delivered the best debate performance by a Republican presidential candidate in more than two decades. Romney spoke crisply about the next four years as well as the last four years, was detailed in clarifying the choice of paths ahead, and seemed more comfortable, more energetic—and even more presidential—than the incumbent.

    Romney comes out of the debate with momentum. Can his campaign turn a very good debate into a true inflection point in the presidential race?

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  26. President Obama often had that smirk that President Bush would exhibit (against Kerry) when being pressed about his record. Governor Romney was the clear winner, as he did a great job in articulating his vision and had good rebuttals. Meanwhile, Obama lost b/c his philosophy of government combined with his terrible record make for a losing argument.

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  27. The president will get some tutoring and probably will do better next time. But Obama has displayed this ‘thin-skinned’ demeanor before, I remember it from the ’08 debates with Hillary.

    At least it’s an interesting race again.

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  30. I watched about half the debate then went to bed.
    Obama was at a disadvantage because he was trying to persuade us that things would be different the next four years.
    You can’t do that, it just doesn’t work.

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