Primer Debate Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney got the debate he needed by bringing the campaign back to the recent past.
Romney’s point-by-point critique of President Obama’s record was sharp, specific and sustained. He managed to steer the debate toward the central challenge of the Obama reelection campaign: the disappointment over his own unfulfilled promise.
“But you’ve been president four years,” Romney said, in an unlikelyzinger early in the debate, unfurled when Obama talked up his deficit plans.
“We know that the path we’re taking is not working. It’s time for a new path,” Romney said as the 90 minutes drew to a close, speaking more broadly about the economy.
It was a highly clinical debate, even wonky. The exchanges were noticeably lacking in humanity, geared very much for grown-ups – notwithstanding Romney’sBig Bird shout-out.
Obama had Romney on the defensive at key points, particularly when the discussion came to entitlements and the Paul Ryan plan. But he didn’t come primed to make this race about his opponent the same way Romney did.
By the time the candidates left the stage, the president was confronted again by his biggest obstacle in the race.-------------------------------------------------
Obama is running, once again, against his own record – and he has an opponent who’s primed to make the case more effectively than he has to date.
A focus group of Walmart moms in Las Vegas, sponsored by Walmart and moderated by bi-partisan pollsters, revealed mixed reactions to each candidate in tonight’s debate but a broad sense that Romney was the victor.
In a break-off group ofnon-Latina women afterwards, the general consensus in the room was that Romney won. But even so, the women didn’t walk away seeing Romney in a very positive light.
When asked to describe their impressions of Romney, the women used words like “rude,” “pushy” and “assertive” – and when asked to clarify if assertive was positive or negative, the woman who offered that description said it was negative.
Thewomen’s impressions of Obama weren’t positive either. Words used to describe the president included “defeated,” “backpedaling” and “speaking the same game.”
So what set Romney apart as the winner in these women’s minds? Two things seemed to resonate – Romney’s history of reaching across the aisle in Massachusetts and the fact that these voters felt like they heard something new from him in termsof his plans, while Obama was telling them the same thing they’ve been hearing for four years.
“I liked that he worked with Democrats and Republicans in his state,” one woman said about Romney, eliciting agreement from among the rest of the room’s 13 women.
“I felt more comfortable with him because at least he has attempted to work across the aisle,” said another woman. “I’ve not seen that fromObama.”
During the debate, the focus group reacted positively to both Romney and Obama.
Dials signaling approval moved when the candidates talked about helping the middle class, and consistently fell back when candidates switched from talking about their own plans and went into attacking their opponent.
One issue that resonated a lot with these women, it appeared, was education. During thedebate, when both Romney and Obama talked about education, the dials indicated a positive reaction. But in the focus group afterwards, when asked who was better on the topic of education, the general response in the room was that both men were equal on the topic.
There was one line from Romney on the topic that seemed to stand out, though. Two different women reiterated Romney’s line to Obama aboutspending money on green jobs that could have hired teachers: “You put $90 billion into green jobs. And I — look, I’m all in favor of green energy. $90 billion, that would have hired two million teachers. $90 billion.”
Several women expressed disappointment that abortion rights were not brought up, saying that they would have liked to hear the candidates talk about that issue in their own words,...