President Obama and Romney debate #1

One thing we learned from Romney last night was that he now loves schools... along with his love of trees, rivers and lakes. His love of schools, however, goes against what he campaigned upon earlier in the year, where he ridiculed the President for wanting to add more teachers and firefighter across the country.

Romney may have accomplished what his party set out to do, and that was for him to appear more energetic and forceful against the President. Romney effectively took the moderator, Jim Lehrer, out of his position early on in the debate, and Lehrer never fully took control again. It was a disdainful and disrespecting display of an elitist plutocrat, who is used to getting his way, and he conveniently ignored the respected Jim Lehrer whenever possible.

President Obama seemed a bit more cordial in adhering to the rules, but to some, appeared to have been uninterested in the debate, or relying too heavily on appearing Presidential. The lack of rebuttal by the President to Mitt Romney's continual misrepresentation of facts has angered some democrats and liberals and shows either unpreparedness by the President's debate team, or a miscalculation of how important each debate is in securing the undecided voters.

The Etch-a-Sketch Romney was on full display during the debate, in which he constantly moved more to the center when it came to medicare and taxes. Romney, as a way to scare seniors, continued to hammer the President on taking $716 billion dollars from Medicare, which has proven to be a mischaracterization of the facts. But, the President did not use that moment to say that the Romney's plan would also cut $716 billion from medicare, and make the distinction between the two plans. The President could have told the American people that his plan was taking the money from providers and hospitals who have been overcharging and double billing, thereby gutting the system, but would keep Medicare as it is, making it stronger and giving it longevity. He could have pointed out that Mitt Romney's plan was to allow providers and hospitals to maintain control over the policies that have been the culprits in destroying Medicare, and that his plan was to turn Medicare into a voucher program, which would be the end of the program as we know it.

The President did attack Romney on Romney's proposed $5 trillion dollar tax cut that would prove devastating to the middle-class and was another reason that Romney would be bad for the country. Disappointment abounds within the democratic party and with liberals who feel that the President should have taken Romney to task on his 47% comments a week ago. It was an opportunity missed. The President's performance or lack thereof left many wondering whether he was fully ready for the debate, or if the strategy by David Axelrod and David Plouffe may have been to blame. Either way, this was the first of three debates, and it can only get more interesting as we near the 2012 Presidential election.