Romney wins first debate

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

The immediate reaction to Wednesday nights 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 hed 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 presidents 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 Obamas 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.

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

Democratic strategists for Obamas campaign were also forced to acknowledge Romneys 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.

Pollwatch

CNN: A poll of debate-watchers found Romney very clearly ahead,with 67 percent of registered voters saying he won the debate,against just 25 percent for President Obama.

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CBS: A poll of undecided voters found 46 per cent siding with Romney,22 per cent with Obama.

GOOGLE: In an online poll,47.8 per cent voted for Romney,while 25.4 percent for Obama.

TWITTER: It scored Romney the debates clear winner. There were 47,141 tweets mentioning Romney and win or winner compared to 29,677 mentioning Obama and win or winner.

Pinnacle Sports: This offshore gambling site decreased the odds of Obama winning the election to about 73 per cent after the debate.