Governor Romney won hands down. The President was distracted, curly and looked like he was searching for responses... and can't do basic math and economics....

Wow, Romney owned that debate. He kept Obama on the defensive the whole time. Romney called him out on his Medicare, and he told the public the TRUTH!..Romney had so much he wanted to say, and a short time to do it. But he was smart, sharp, knew his stuff. When Obama hit him up, Romney came back 3 times smarter. Obama looked like a whipped puppy. Romney also called Obama out on all the Billions he had blown on green energy,and he picked the losers! Romney looked at Obama when he spoke, Obama looked down, and I saw him looking as if he just didn't want to be there. Romney kept trying to explain economics to Obama over and over. Obama doesn't understand economics, it's clear. Obama isn't the great orator, without his buddy the teleptompter. ....Wow, I could go on and on...But it's clear, Romney won this debate tonite... i was sooooooooooooo Impressed, I pray the independents and those who have not really made up their minds yet saw what i saw!!! also loved the comment about i have sons and im famaliar with a lie , blah blah, PRICELESS

@ Red, could not have said it better myself !!! Romney .. WINNER !!!

America saw the emergence of a true leader last night, someone ready with bold ideas to get the country back on track. Mitt Romney is that man.

I flipped to MSNBC after the debate and saw the nightly marxists hosts sitting there stunned at what they just witnessed. That was priceless.......................................

I liked Pres. Obama best. Romney came across as arrogant & rude as he kept interrupting - smug smile on his face the entire time.

Wow! Were we watching the same debate? "Arrogant and rude" I saw a man who was knowledgeable and confident, that was ready to lead the country, debating with someone who had been caught stealing from the "cookie Jar".

I couldn't watch debate. But I'm wondering, who are these "influencers" you polled and why do we care what they think? Can't people make up their own mind?

Romney wins in a blow out. Obama displayed his complete lack of knowledge and understanding of business and economics. Romney wins the election propelled by tonight's performance. Our nightmare of the last 4 years is almost over.

Do we want a Debater in Chief or a Commander in Chief? Gov.Romney may have better debating skills, but the policies of Pres.Obama are much better. You don't run a country like a business. Government supports business. Government is about the people not about making money. When the fact-checkers are done, you will see that we have a Commander in Chief with Pres.Obama and a Liar in Chief with Gov.Romney. How can you debate someone who continually changes his policies? Gov.Romney last night proved that he will continue to change his message, so no one will know where he stands and we know where that is, in the pocket of big business & deregulators. Policies that put us in this terrible situation we are in now. Gov.Romney may have won on style, but Pres.Obama wins on policy.

Big Bird won this debate and Jim Lehrer was the clear loser.

I guess most of these commenters are the "influencers" that are supposed to tell everyone what to think about the debate. Most sound like Romney's campaign staffers. Even if Romney won the debate on style points, I still don't trust him, am thoroughly opposed to his agenda, and would never in a million years vote for the guy.

I think the debate was great. The crowd didn't interrupt and both candidates had a chance to answer questions, etc.

Politicians always withhold a lot of details when it comes to painful decisions (we need tax reform and entitlement reforms and both include "third rails"), but we need more from both.

However, Romney has started disclosing some details that I thought would interest you.

Here's a big one:

"Romney's idea for capping individuals’ tax deductions at $17,000 would impose a burden that would fall hardest on the wealthiest taxpayers, who make the most use of the breaks."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-03/romney-17-000-deduction-cap-first-of-three-part-proposal.html

I think ironic that we were all focused on Romney's, Buffet's and other wealthy folks low tax rates just a few weeks ago. The reason the wealthy pay such low rates is because of our outdated/bloated tax code. Imagine that making over $1 million paying a flat rate of 20% vs 14%, etc.

Also, remember the original purpose of the Alternative Min Tax - It was to make sure "rich" paid min? No loaded with loopholes so hits middle class.

We need tax reform to broaden tax base and simplify.

That will remove a huge amount of uncertainty that is negatively impacting the economy. Businesses cannot make long term decisions (including hiring) with such uncertainty about tax policy and fiscal policy.

The President needs to propose his own tax and spending reforms asap.

"I'm glad this is only the first of three debates," wrote one Democrat. "The president will learn from this." This comment says it all we have a President who is sitll learning on the job at our expense. After almost 4 years in office some Obamam supproters are realizing he is just not a leader. Nice guy, good speaker, good community organizer, good campaigner, but not a leader. Romney has lead and will lead. Romney has proven his leadership skills time and time and time again. Obama has no experience as a leader and continues to learn on the job at our expense.

Isn't it funny that some people cannot recognize greatness anymore? 23 million out of work and we have schoolgirls of the Pres. flying to spring break with friends and dozens of secret service people. Is that greatness or is it taking advantage of all of us?

i cant wait to see biden trip over his own words in a week

tom m.....now what did I say ? read my post again. How in the world can I be any more succinct ? "Do you honestly for one minute think that "greatness" exists in American politics anymore ? " How clear can I be ? jeez........

What makes people think a first-term senator who spent most of that first-term running for another office, is qualified to oversee the world's largest economy?

Romney ran a successful company, he was the "Chief Executive" of a successful Olympics, he even ran an entire state. Obama has proven he is in over his head, he never even ran a corner lemonade stand.

What I heard GovRomney say was that he was going to balance the budget by cutting Public Broadcasting & add 2 Trillion dollars to the already bloated military budget that even the military says they don't need or want. What?????? These are some of the ideas out of GovRomney. Than you call Pres Obama inexperienced? I don't know what they put in the Kool-aid that some of you are drinking, but you are really delusional if you think that Gov Romney is the answer to our countries problems.

Romney bounded off the stage on Wednesday night with a wide grin from cheek to cheek, proud of himself for delivering all the ‘zingers’ his staff wrote up for him.

But here’s the problem: he just made stuff up. By one count, he lied 27 times in 38 minutes! On Medicare, on Obamacare, on taxes, on Wall Street Reform, on you name it... Mitt said whatever came to his mind just to to score political points.

Without the folks from Fact Check at your side...you can't trust what Romney says. That's not the kind of President I want. Bush was like that and then he got his ass kicked on foreign policy and again on the domestic economy. Two wars and the worst recession since the Great Depression.

We can't afford Bush and we can't afford Romney either. Worst of all; neither can be trusted again.

Obama won my vote again.

What impressed me most about the debate was the end. Romneys fmily came up and congratulated him. Obama and Romney exchanged pleasantries, and even smiled and seemed to enjoy each other. Romneys family seemed thrilled to meet the President, and it was genuine. Obama was warm and friendly with them also.

What we saw here was two decent men. Two family men that we would be lucky to have as leaders. Yes they are politicians, but they are also two upstanding individuals
Running for president.

America is alive and well, all we have to do is get the centrists to speak up, and not allow the radicals from both sides to control the conversation.

The FACT you trust factcheck.org means you cant be bothered to do your own homework, and you trust something blindly as much as you would accuse someone else of doing on the other side of the political spectrum.

The magazine's Oct. 15 cover features Mitt Romney debating an empty chair instead of President Barack Obama, just as Clint Eastwood did at the Republican National Convention.

“This image seemed like a proper response to the first Presidential debate, but I’m not sure I realized how hard it is to caricature furniture," Barry Blitt told The New Yorker about his cover, “One on One."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/10/the-new-yorker-eastwooding-137676.html?hp=r1

Jay Leno goes after the President again.

Early in his opening monologue, the NBC Tonight Show host said of the stellar television ratings for Wednesday night's debate, "The only person who didn't tune in, I think, was President Obama"

What a crowd! Man! Yeah! You sound like Republicans watching last night's debate. Oh, my gosh. Well, the consensus is Mitt Romney won the presidential debate last night. The only people that thought Obama won - the replacement refs. Those are the only ones.

They're saying close to 60 million people may have watched the debate. In fact, the only person who didn't tune in, I think, was President Obama. What happened? [Laughter] Even Tony Romo was going, “What happened?”

Check this out...Obama soft on Wall Street...Over the past four years, it seems that everyone has been demanding that something be done to "fix Wall Street," and Dodd-Frank and Occupy Wall Street, it would appear, have not been sufficient. The Justice Department hasn't actually convicted any of the high-profile bankers who played a large part in the financial crisis, and data from the IMF suggests that the capital markets are no less vulnerable to crash and fraud than they were in 2008. Despite aggressive rhetoric from the White House, the Obama Administration has opted to go after institutions rather than individuals. This method has prompted criticism due to the fact that such settlements don't involve any actual admission of wrongdoing and the dollar amounts they cost banks are really not all that significant (take, for instance the $25 billion foreclosure abuses settlement with Wells, Ally Financial, Citibank, BofA, and Chase). There's also the issue of time, money, and expertise: it's much more expensive and logistically difficult to go after a plethora of individuals, and in the post-9/11 era, the FBI and Justice Department have been focused mainly on counterterrorism (a whole other can of worms). In addition, insiders cite pure and simple fear of financial institutions failing if they were indicted and the resulting effects on the already-precarious global markets. Ummh...whos in bed with wall street insiders...the Presdent and Congress Ummmh!