First Debate – Initial Reaction

Good debate performance. Both candidates did well. They were obviously well rehearsed, so much of what we heard were planned talking points. There were a few genuine discussion points, but they were few. If I were to grade it, I’d break it down into two parts: In overall performance, I think Romney eeked out a better performance than Obama, but in regards to expectations, Romney definitely exceeded. Obama sounded rusty.

As far as how the debate was moderated, I enjoyed how Lehrer allowed both sides to talk and answer each others rebuttals, but he didn’t have full control over the candidates. Both “stole” moments to retort without prompting, and both spoke over the moderator when he was trying to end the discussion point and/or frame the rebuttals.