With a surprisingly strong showing, Republican challengerMitt Romney on Thursday shook the race to the White House against the incumbentBarack Obama in the first high-stake US presidential debate by calling intoquestion his track record on the economy, health care, jobs and fiscal deficit.
Using the first of the three debates, 65-year-old Romneyregained momentum by aggressively standing up to 51-year-old Obama and accusedhim of failure to lead the country out of the deepest economic downturn sincethe great depression.
The 90-minute prime-time showdown was an online sensationwith channels reporting a near record viewership. Soon after, a CNN and CBSflash polls declared Romney the winner.
Romney was voted by 67 per cent of the registered voters,while Obama was supported by just 25 per cent. The results gave a big boost tothe Romney campaign given that all the national polls show that it is a tightrace between the two.
The debates, a regular feature of American presidentialcampaigns since 1960, allow a chance to measure up the leaders who would bepresident as they stand side-by-side.
The poll results showed Romney won comprehensively in allaspect and issues of the debate.
If Romney's goal was to show that he could project equalstature to the President he succeeded offering his campaign the lift thatRepublicans had been seeking, while Obama stopped short of challenging hisrival's specific policies.
The possible reason, political analysts said was that Romneyfocused his entire debate on job creation, while Obama tried to deal the issueof deficit.
Romney, who has been trailing behind Obama throughout thiselection cycle, albeit through a close margin, needed such a strong performanceto generate added momentum to his campaign.
"I don't want to cost jobs. My priority is jobs. Getthe rates down, lower deductions and exemptions to create more jobs, becausethere's nothing better for getting us to a balanced budget than having morepeople working, earning more money, paying more taxes. That's by far the mosteffective and efficient way to get this budget balanced," said Romney.
The Republican leader cashed in on a weak economic growthand 8.1 per cent unemployment that have left Obama vulnerable in his bid for asecond term in the White House.
Being repeatedly pushed to defensive by Romney on jobsfront, Obama at one point of time even said the moderator that he might want tomove on to another topic.
"You may want to move on to another topic, but I wouldjust say this to the American people. I think math, common sense and ourhistory shows us that's not a recipe for job growth," Obama said.
"The approach that Governor Romney's talking about isthe same sales pitch that was made in 2001 and 2003. And we ended up with theslowest job growth in 50 years. We ended up moving from surplus to deficits.And it all culminated in the worst financial crisis since the GreatDepression," Obama said.
Undeterred Romney, who appeared to be more at ease and wellprepared for the debate, continued to attack Obama with strong convincingarguments.
"You've been president four years. You said you'd cutthe deficit in half. It's now four years later. We still have trillion-dollardeficits," Romney pitched to which Obama had no response.
"I'm concerned that the path that we're on has justbeen unsuccessful. The president has a view very similar to the view he hadwhen he ran four years ago, that a bigger government, spending more, taxingmore, regulating more -- if you will, trickle-down government would work.That's not the right answer for America. I'll restore the vitality that getsAmerica working again," Romney asserted.
Later in an email to his supporter, Obama hoped that he madethem proud. "I hope I made you proud out there explaining the vision weshare for this country," Obama wrote in an email to his supporters afterthe debate.
Obama's Indian-American supporter continued to beenthusiastic about his campaign.
"After an enthusiastic Convention which furthermotivated Democratic supporters, President Barack Obama did tonight what he neededto do: transparently and authentically laid out his vision and plan to move theUnited States forward and to restore the promise of middle-class security forall Americans," said Shefali Razdan Duggal, a top Obama supporter fromCalifornia.
"This is not only a choice between two candidates, itis essentially a choice between two fundamentally dissimilar visualizations forour country's future," she said.
But the Indian-American supporters of Romney thoughtotherwise.
"Romney's extra ordinary performance in the debate waslike a great story Teller on American Economy, Health Care, reducing theNational debt and equitable tax code to all," said Dr Sampat Shivangi, adelegate to the Republican National Convention.
"President Obama who is known to be a great debater andorator failed to show passion and sparks. He appeared to be defensive, listlesswithout offering any solutions for the failed economy of four years and how hewould get out of this," Shivangi said.
"In my opinion, Governor Romney came across betterprepared, he was aggressive, very well prepared on the issues and did what heneeded to win this debate," said Dinesh Patel, an Indian-AmericanRepublican leader.
"Obama was more defensive, repeating things aboutGovernor Romney's positions that Romney pointed out were not accurate.President Obama showed that in absence of a teleprompter he is not veryeloquent. This debate will help Romney narrow the gap at least a littlebit," he added.
Major American media outlets too concluded that Romneyperformed better than Obama, but cautioned that the incumbent president wouldcome back with vigor and energy in the next debate.
"Romney aggressively pressed President Obama on theeconomy, jobs and health care in a debate that avoided the one-liners thatsometimes emerge from presidential face-offs," The New York Times wrote.
"Romney came into the 90-minute exchange after severaldifficult weeks but appeared rejuvenated by the opportunity to take his casedirectly to Obama and the American people. He was well prepared and aggressiveas he hammered the president.
The contrast with Obama was striking, as the presidentappeared less energetic even as he rebutted some of Romney’s toughestattacks," the Washington Post said
"The debate is likely to give Romney what he neededmost, which is a fresh look from voters, at least those who are undecided oropen to changing their minds and will change the conversation about thecampaign, which for the past two weeks has been tilted in the president'sfavor," the daily said, adding that Romney now faces the challenge oftrying to build on his performance and keep the president on the defensive inthe days ahead.
"In exchanges full of policy proposals, facts andfigures, the Republican challenger was more aggressive in the 90-minuteencounter in criticising Obama's record and depicting the president's vision asone of big government," the CNN said after the debate.
Obama's hometown newspaper Chicago Tribune said neitherRomney nor Obama appeared to land a knockout blow or commit the sort of seriousblunder that would instantly change the presidential race.
"The Republican challenger held his own during a90-minute encounter that revolved almost exclusively around domestic issues.Romney, offering sharper answers than Obama and seizing control of the debateat several points, was never ruffled, repeatedly predicting that Obama wouldprovide more trickle-down government if he were reelected in November,"The Tribune said.
During the debate, Obama accused Romney of protecting theinterest of the rich and not that of the middle class.
"Under Romney's definition, there are a whole bunch ofmillionaires and billionaires who are small businesses. Donald Trump is a smallbusiness. And I know Donald Trump doesn't like to think of himself as smallanything, but that's how you define small businesses if you're getting businessincome," Obama said.
"And that kind of approach, I believe, will not growour economy because the only way to pay for it without either burdening themiddle class or blowing up our deficit is to make drastic cuts in things likeeducation, making sure that we are continuing to invest in basic science andresearch, all the things that are helping America grow. And I think that wouldbe a mistake," Obama said.
Romney asserted that despite best of Obama's efforts, theeconomy is still growing slow.
"The reality is it's not just wealthy people -- youmentioned Donald Trump -- it's not just Donald Trump you're taxing; it's allthose businesses that employ one-quarter of the workers in America. These smallbusinesses that are taxed as individuals. You raise taxes and you kill jobs. That'swhy the National Federation of Independent Businesses said your plan will kill700,000 jobs. I don't want to kill jobs in this environment," he said.
