Romney seen as winning 1st debate against pained-looking Obama as Republicans rally

DENVER – Republican Mitt Romney barrelled out of the first presidential debate against a haggard, uncomfortable-looking President Barack Obama as surprised Republicans seemed to rally back to a candidate who had been slipping in the polls.

“We may all wonder why he waited until now to liberate the real Mitt, but five weeks from election day, that question is beside the point,” Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger wrote Thursday. Posts on Twitter went heavily for Romney, and even Obama advisers acknowledged that Romney did well.

But it wasn’t clear whether the debate would sway the less than 10 per cent of Americans who say they haven’t yet decided on a candidate. And two debates remain before the Nov. 6 election. Both candidates quickly returned to campaigning Thursday in the handful of states that will determine the next president.

As Romney faced the president directly for the first time in the campaign, signs already were indicating that the race was tightening in some of those battleground states where Obama has enjoyed a recent advantage. The election is decided in state-by-state contests and not by popular vote.

Obama, who appeared to spend much of the 90 minutes looking at the podium while Romney looked at him, signalled that he won’t let up on his message that Romney’s plans on taxes, health care, the deficit and more just don’t add up.

“It’s fun,” an energized Romney declared well into Wednesday night’s debate, clearly relishing the back-and-forth.

“It’s arithmetic,” said Obama, hammering at Romney’s conspicuous lack of details with far less enthusiasm.

Both candidates came into a newly structured debate with distinct missions and largely achieved them. Romney needed to project leadership and dispel the image of an out-of-touch multimillionaire. Obama needed to avoid making any major mistakes and press the case that he still has more to offer to improve an economy that continues to sag.

Notably, Obama made no mention of Romney’s secretly recorded remark that he’s not worried about the 47 per cent of Americans who don’t pay taxes. Democratic ads, though, have been using the comment heavily since it emerged last month.

Asked why the president didn’t raise the video, Obama senior political adviser David Axelrod suggested to MSNBC that he didn’t need to since it has been so widely seen and heard. “The president’s belief is that’s something that has been very much a part of the discussion,” Axelrod said.

Axelrod acknowledged to NBC that Romney “did give a strong performance. But that’s what it was, a performance.”

Ed Gillespie, a top aide to Romney, told NBC that what people saw in the debate was a presidential challenger “who had a command of the facts.”

Both political parties released sharp videos Thursday playing off the debate, with Republicans calling theirs “Smirk” and focusing on Obama’s sometimes sour-looking demeanour. The Democrats called theirs “Mitt Romney: What a Guy,” showing Romney repeatedly interrupting the moderator.

Two debates remain, on Oct. 16 and Oct. 22. The second will focus on foreign affairs.

The campaigns now head to some of the most hotly contested states over the next few days. Obama was staying in Colorado on Thursday, while Romney headed to Virginia.

In next few weeks, Romney is expected to give a number of speeches filling in details to answer criticism that he hasn’t clearly outlined his plans. The Republican challenger begins with a foreign policy speech in Virginia on Monday. Subsequent speeches are expected to focus on job creation, debt and spending.

Romney has promised to balance the budget in eight years to 10 years but hasn’t explained just how he’ll do it.

“At some point, I think the American people have to ask themselves, is the reason that Governor Romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret because they’re too good?” Obama said, in a rare show of passion. “Is it because that somehow middle-class families are going to benefit too much from them? No.”

The president said the U.S., with its still-weak economy and unemployment above 8 per cent, faces tough problems that defy simple solutions and said his own choices were “benefiting middle-class families all across the country.”

Romney maintained it was Obama who was crushing the middle class and getting the numbers wrong, telling him, “Mr. President, you’re entitled to your own airplane and your own house, but not your own facts.”

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Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt in Denver, Allen Breed in Raleigh, North Carolina, Julie Pace in Denver, Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio, and Nancy Benac and Steve Peoples in Washington contributed to this report.

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