Romney ‘wins’ first debate

The immediate reaction to Wednesday night's presidential debate was a torrent of criticism directed at President Obama, with Republicans, as well as many Democrats, accusing Obama of delivering a flat, uninspired and defensive performance.

Republicans seemed genuinely surprised that his opponent, Mitt Romney, was energetic, aggressive and presidential during his first-ever general election debate.

"In a thoroughly dominating performance, Romney bested Obama in both tone and substance," Stephen F Hayes of the Weekly Standard magazine said. "Obama often found himself at the end of a verbal cul-de-sac, seemingly unaware of how he'd ended up there."

At an impromptu appearance Thursday morning in front of a group of Colorado conservative activists, Romney said the debate was a contrast of "two visions" and said it was "helpful to be able to describe those visions."

At the gathering, Romney reprised his lines from the debate, saying the president's vision for the country is of "trickle-down government" and criticised Obama as misleading the public about his plans to cut the deficit.

On Twitter, some of Obama's Democratic allies expressed anger and disappointment that the president did not make better use of the "47 per cent" speech by Romney and other missteps that the Democratic campaign has spent months honing into attack ads and stump speeches.

Andrew Sullivan, a strong supporter of Obama, echoed Peggy Noonan, a former Republican speechwriter, on Twitter, saying "this is a rolling calamity for Obama."

Republicans, declaring Romney the clear winner, predicted his performance would help him win the election in just over a month.

Democratic strategists for Obama's campaign were also forced to acknowledge Romney's performance. Stephanie Cutter, deputy campaign manager, said on CNN that Romney "scores points on style".

At this point however, it remains unclear whether these snap assessments made immediately after the debate will be matched by the more sober judgments of voters in the forthcoming days.

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