Romney Crushed Obama in Debate

Wednesday night was the first presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney and there was a clear winner. A CNN poll revealed that 67% of viewers say Romney won and only 25% say Obama won.

The Guardian broke down the answers from both candidates and revealed that Obama referred to his accomplishments 10 times while Romney only referenced his record as governor four times. Both candidates directly attacked one another 11 times (not counting closing remarks). And both were sparse on details, offering few concrete plans for the future and few promises.

Just a day before the debate, Gallup released poll results that Americans expected Obama would do better in the debates, with 57% picking him and only 33% picking Romney. However, the president wasn’t up to the task last night and Romney gained a second wind for his campaign.

Even hardcore liberals had nothing good to say about the president’s performance on Wednesday, with Michael Moore blasting Obama on Twitter, James Carville saying it looked like Obama didn’t want to be at the debates, and Chris Matthews all but melting down on MSNBC.

Business Insider has been following Intrade’s trading on Obama being re-elected. Intrade is a prediction market where investors can make predictions on real-world events. After the debate last night, Obama got clobbered. The president began the debate with his chance of being re-elected, according to Intrade’s market, around 70%. The morning after the debate, his chances were down to 65%.

Although Obama still has a considerable lead on Intrade, Romney made a huge jump last night, proving that this election isn’t locked up.

The real loser of last night’s debate though was possibly moderator Jim Lehrer who lost control of the debate, allowing the candidates to speak well over the allotted answer time. Romney was able to take advantage of that and have the last word on almost every topic throughout the 90-minute debate.

The importance of debates is contested. Gallup’s Tuesday poll also revealed that 83% of voters did not think there was anything either candidate could say to change their minds at this point.

Read more:

Debate Decoder: The First 2012 Presidential Debate Deconstructed — Guardian

Mitt Romney Absolutely Destroyed Obama in the First Presidential Debate — Business Insider

Instant Poll: Mitt Romney Annihilated Obama — Business Insider