Posted on 10/04/2012 1:39:18 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
DENVER -- Maybe it was the pre-debate game of Jenga that loosened up Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Whatever it was, the GOP's hope for ousting President Obama in November was on his game Wednesday night at the first presidential debate, lobbing blow after blow at his Democratic opponent on taxes, health care and his subsidies for failed solar energy firms. Romney acted very much like the impassioned candidate for which his party has been pining throughout the campaign and he achieved an aim few expected him to reach: He kept the president on the defensive, looking irritated throughout the 90-minute exchange.
"Romney had the eye of the tiger and simply won this debate because he seemed better prepared and more enthusiastic," Republican strategist Ron Bonjean told The Washington Examiner. "He was nimble and set an aggressive pace while he kept Obama on the defensive."
The president started off aggressively, going after Romney over what he said was a $5 trillion tax cut for the wealthy and charging that his Republican rival could never simultaneously cut taxes, increase defense spending and reduce the nation's budget deficit as Romney claims he will.
"How we pay for that, reduce the deficit, and make the investments that we need to make, without dumping those costs onto middle-class Americans, I think is one of the central questions of this campaign," Obama said.
But Romney responded forcefully, displaying a passion that many Republicans have long been hoping to see. He denied proposing a $5 trillion tax cut, said he has no plans to reduce the taxes on the wealthy and would actually lower taxes on the middle class.
"Under the president's policies, middle-income Americans have been buried," Romney said, echoing a line from Obama's gaffe-prone vice president, Joe Biden. "They're just being crushed. Middle- income Americans have seen their income come down by $4,300. This is a tax in and of itself. I'll call it the economy tax. It's been crushing."
Romney virtually reprised a Ronald Reagan moment from the 1980 debate, when Reagan turned the tide against President Jimmy Carter by asking Americans if they were really better off than they were four years earlier.
"Look at the evidence of the last four years," Romney said. "We've got 23 million people out of work or [who] stopped looking for work in this country. When the president took office, 32 million people on food stamps, 47 million on food stamps today. Economic growth this year [is] slower than last year, and last year slower than the year before."
Even on health care, an issue on which the Obama campaign believes Romney is vulnerable because he instituted in Massachusetts reforms very similar to those later imposed nationally by the president, Obama appeared defensive.
Democratic strategist Christopher Hahn told The Examiner that Obama "started slow but heated up near the middle."
But Democratic-leaning pollster John Zogby said Romney was the clear winner. "Mitt won big tonight ... Romney came out to play hard."
And University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato said, "Romney won the first debate. I don't think it was particularly close."......
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney returns Friday to the Tampa area to attend a rally at the Pier in St. Petersburg.
Doors open at 3:45 p.m., and the program starts at 6:15 p.m.
Tickets are free and may be picked up at these offices from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. through Friday:
* St. Petersburg Victory Office, 2101 Tyrone Blvd. N., St. Petersburg.
* Oldsmar Victory Office, 3150 Tampa Road, Suite 16, Oldsmar.
* Clearwater Victory Office, 4707 140th Ave. N., Suite 210, Clearwater.
* Brandon Victory Office, 1602 Oakfield Drive, Suite 207, Brandon.
* Tampa Victory Office, 4465 Gandy Blvd., Suite 820, Tampa.
* Temple Terrace Victory Office, 234 Bullard Parkway, Temple Terrace.
Tickets can also be obtained online at mittromney.com/FL.
The Pier is at 550 Second Ave. N.E. on the downtown waterfront.
http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2012/oct/03/romney-to-attend-rally-friday-at-pier-in-st-pete-ar-520858/
Mitt Romney was loosened up because last night because the MSM could not censor him out or lie through their teeth about him..I would say many Americans saw him in action for the first time. Also, the teleprompter was missing for the President.
The feeling I have this morning, is that the “door” I’ve been pushing against so hard (with the MSM pushing back) has flung open - the world saw them side by side and not through the state media filter.
And I have the uneasy feeling that the MSM/Obamaprogressives have retreated to a fallback position, ready for ambush.
they will do whatever they can to keep his presidency alive. Palin said that we should expect to see the media and the smear merchants to make stuff up as a distraction. I fully expect them to come out with some new revelation of sexual abuse and/or homosexuality sooner rather than later, if for nothing else just to get Romney off his game.
It won’t happen, but an intelligent electorate would be MAJORLY PISSED OFF to realize that the Romney they have been shown for the past 3 months by the MSM is fictional and bears no resemblance to the actual candidate.
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