The first debate between the two candidates for president of the United States is now history. Political commentators and others are now doing their thing, offering their takes on which of the two men, President Barack Obama or Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, did the best job of convincing voters to cast ballots in their favor on Nov. 6. One of the unofficial commentators is my daughter.
“I hope you enjoyed the debate,” she wrote. “I thought Obama did a nice job delivering intelligent ideas as well as supporting information. I also thought Romney repeated himself a lot and wasn’t able to fully support his own statements or constructively debate with Obama.”
My wife and I watched the entire debate. Neither of us came to the conclusions my daughter reached. Most likely that’s because Alla and I prefer Romney over Obama. My daughter, who has not advised me of her preference, could be a more neutral observer.
In the meantime, Obama supporters, expressing a bit of dismay about their candidate’s seeming lack of intensity and, perhaps, interest, will not change their voting intentions. They will still cast their ballots for Obama.
That is just as true for Romney supporters, though at least some of the more conservative voices say he did the better job in the discussion. If they favored Romney when the debate began, it is unlikely they changed their minds. I don’t think any of it makes a lot of difference, except to shape the coming political advertisements.
There are two important points about all of this that matter. First, did these 90 minutes, the lead-up spin and the follow-up commentary, change any votes? I would guess it might have moved a few undecided voters to one side or the other, but it is unlikely there was much of an adjustment in the public’s attitude about the candidates. There were no obvious political gaffes. Neither Romney nor Obama significantly lacked a grasp of the issues, though the format of this verbal confrontation offered plenty of opportunity for a display of ignorance.
In that same vein, no one is talking about memorable zingers by either of the debaters, zingers that will live on in advertisements and resurface on political talk shows, late-night entertainment programs and newscasts. Nothing along those lines that will have much of an impact came up during the debate.
Perhaps the remaining two debates plus the vice presidential candidate meeting on Thursday will give those few who haven’t decided reasons to either abandon one of the two or jump on a bandwagon of support. As careful as these two candidates for president were during their first session, that doesn’t seem likely at the vice presidential candidate level.
We can always hope something exciting will pop out of the mouth of one or the other, or both, of the candidates for vice president, a prospect that holds hope for Romney/Ryan supporters. Vice President Joe Biden has been known to say things that raise eyebrows.
It has also become more than clear that each of the men who wish to lead this country for the next four years has a different vision of how to do it. The answers each gave to the final question by moderator Jim Lehrer — the role the candidates believe government should have in American life — reinforced that.
To his credit, Obama said the primary role of the federal government is to protect the American people. Though he negotiated the rest of that path daintily, Obama obviously believes more government control and intervention in the affairs of individuals and business is necessary, indeed demanded, if government is to be effective in that protection. For him, it is an external and internal responsibility.
Romney has a different approach. While Obama called for a cooperative effort between government, business and ultimately every citizen, he would continue to rely on central decision-making. Romney, for his part, is much more desirous of getting government as much out of the way as possible so individuals and companies can go about the business of rebuilding the U.S. economy. Within a modest regulatory scheme, Romney is counting on competition and individual enterprise to expand opportunity. That is a formula that moved Americans to one of the highest standards of living in the world.
Romney has it right.
Hawkins is retired after 35 years as a construction industry association manager. He was a broadcast reporter and news anchor in Denver. As a Navy officer, he saw action in Vietnam in the River Assault Squadrons and is the recipient of a Silver Star and Purple Heart. He can be reached at george.hawkins@sddt.com.
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