Romney said tonight if you're near retirement -- 60 or over-- there will be no changes. I hope he just lost the voting segment between ages 54 and 60.
One other point Romney fell short on: How to cut the deficit without raising revenue or taxes. Romney insists he won't cut the military budget or raise taxes for anyone. He is most untrustworthy on the issue of cutting the deficit.
Romney didn't implode or make any major gaffes. His major contribution was to make people aware Obama really does have a live opponent. I doubt the average viewer understood his statistics. And he only has a grasp of two topics, jobs and taxes. Being President requires expertise in many more areas, and judging by his elementary school level defense of the Declaration of Independence, I doubt he has it. The idea of Romney using his own judgment as opposed to that of his aides in picking an Attorney General or Supreme Court justices is a most unlikely one in my view. I wonder how many Supreme Court cases he can name in the past decade that didn't involve the economy.
I thought Romney did best at maintaining his upright posture. Obama seemed a little tired or disinterested or annoyed at having to debate. But he hasn't been spending his days prepping, he's been governing -- big difference.
Jim Lehrer was a really boring moderator and he let them both run over him.
Romney will get a bounce for not messing up, but will it last? I doubt uncommitted voters spend much time on Twitter reading political tweets or candidates' websites. The reason they are undecided probably has more to do with their lack of time or interest. So they will probably be affected more by the media analysis (all partisan, one way or the other) and incessant TV commercials.
I hope the young turn out in big numbers to vote for marijuana legalization in Colorado -- that should give Obama an edge since Romney is worse on the issue. And that middle-age boomers wake up and realize they are in the Romney/Ryan cross-hairs on social security and medicare.
