The president implored Americans to be patient and argued that his
policies needed more time to work, warning that changing course would
wipe away the economic progress the country is steadily making. The two
quarreled aggressively over tax policy, the budget deficit and the role
of government, with each man accusing the other of being evasive and
misleading voters.
But for all of the anticipation, and with less than five weeks remaining
until Election Day, the 90-minute debate unfolded much like a seminar
by a business consultant and a college professor. Both men argued that
their policies would improve the lives of the middle class, but their
discussion often dipped deep into the weeds, and they talked over each
other without connecting their ideas to voters.
If Mr. Romney’s goal was to show that he could project equal stature to
the president, he succeeded, perhaps offering his campaign the lift that
Republicans have been seeking. Mr. Obama often stopped short of
challenging his rival’s specific policies and chose not to invoke some
of the same arguments that his campaign has been making against Mr.
Romney for months.
At one point, Mr. Romney offered an admonishment, saying, “Mr.
President, you’re entitled, as the president, to your own airplane and
to your own house, but not to your own facts, all right?” He forcefully
engaged Mr. Obama throughout the night, while the president often looked
down at his lectern and took notes.
A boisterous campaign, which has played out through dueling rallies and
an endless stream of television commercials, took a sober turn as the
candidates stood at facing lecterns for the first time. Mr. Obama, who
has appeared to take command of the race in most battleground states,
seemed to adopt an air of caution throughout the evening that left some
of his liberal supporters disappointed in his performance.
“Are we going to double down on the top-down economic policies that
helped to get us into this mess,” he said, “or do we embrace a new
economic patriotism that says, ‘America does best when the middle class
does best’ “?
For much of the debate, the candidates commandeered the stage, taking
control away from the moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, as they kept trying
to rebut one other. At times, the moderator seemed as if he had walked
off the stage, a result of new rules that were intended to allow for a
deeper and more freewheeling discussion.
On a basic level it was a clash of two ideologies, the president’s
Democratic vision of government playing a supporting role in spurring
economic growth, and Mr. Romney’s Republican vision that government
should get out of the way of businesses that know best how to create
jobs.
Mr. Romney sought to use his moment before a prime-time audience of tens
of millions to escape the corner Mr. Obama and his allies have painted
him into, depicting him as an uncompromising adherent to policies that
have been tried before. He instead turned the focus on his opponent’s
record.
“You’ve been president four years. You’ve been president four years,”
Mr. Romney said at one point. He ticked through a list of promises he
said Mr. Obama had not lived up to, and said, “Middle-income families
are being crushed.”
Neither candidate delivered that knockout blow or devastating line that
each side was hoping for. Still, style points went to Mr. Romney, who
continually and methodically pressed his critique of Mr. Obama. The
president at times acted more as if he were addressing reporters in the
Rose Garden than beating back a challenger intent on taking his job.
Throughout the evening, Mr. Romney escaped Mr. Obama’s attempts to pin
him down on which deductions he would eliminate in his tax proposals.
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