Although I feel that Romney did make his points in the debate, and did a good job of it he still doesn’t get my vote. I wondered if any of the dopers changed their minds.
I feel talk is cheap. and wonder what sort of miracle he intends to preform to create all the jobs he talks about. If the country depends on the middle class getting jobs so they can pay taxes( so the rich don’t need to pay so much) and since the cost of gasoline is so high that the working man who has to drive to get to work is paying so much for gasoline, higher food prices etc. It will still be hard for a working person to support a family.
If he indeed thinks that the 47% of the country won’t vote for him because they live off the government, did he also consider the other percent who don’t live off the government doesn’t include himself, in a way if he pays less taxes and lets the lower income people make it possible for him (and his ilk) to live higher on the hog because they can pay a higher % of their income than he, is that looking out for the middle class or just a plan to get people to vote him in to the office of president?
I might have said that about Obama 4 years ago. He seemed to be the one promising rainbows and kittens while McCain tried to talk reality but no one was really interested.
Now the tables seemed to be turned and Obama’s attempt and trying to talk reality to the US didn’t work. People still like to hear promises about rainbows and kittens and that’s what Romney was spewing.
Ah, see I love spoilers so I find sharing them to be an act of kindness. Survivor is so much better when you know which jackass is about to get voted off.
I don’t know if really changed much. Debates don’t seem to have much of an effect, other than letting people play drinking games. While I would have liked Obama to perform better, it didn’t change my mind about him and I doubt it changed many other people’s minds either. Also, it seems that often the challenger wins the first debate against the incumbent.
I didn’t see this debate as a “win” for Mitt. I guess if you measure win has who was the more confident looking one. From what I saw, Mitt is suddenly a centrist now, which is great I guess, but where was this attitude before? He said what he had to go get the nomination and now it is trying to attract the rest of the folks. That bothers me. Also, ultimately, I just don’t align with conservative views. I don’t think lowerer taxes and reducing regulation is a good thing for th economy, I like social programs (though tweeking is necessary), and I don’t agree with Republicans on social policy. Oh, and I like Obama care, so he didn’t really have much of a chance to persuade me. But Mitt has really been flimsy with his issues. Obama, I can make since out of. However, I would like to know what the far right thinks about Mitt’s current stances.
It did change my mind in this way - before the debate I believed that Romney had zero chance of winning. I no longer believe he has zero chance of winning. IMHO he was targeting the centrist and undecided voter and I believe he was effective in that strategy.
If we were having an election for the person who would be the absolute unquestioned dictator of the economy… so the only thing they’d be in charge of was US financial policy, and they could literally do anything they wanted without having to deal with congress or party politics or anything like that, and they had no control over social issues, and they didn’t appoint supreme court justices… and also if I had a magical truth machine that verified for me that the things that the candidates said in that debate were actually the positions they truly and honestly held…
If all of those ridiculous hypotheticals were true, the debate would have made me at least more open to the idea of voting for Romney.
I may be a little unusual, but the primary thing I watch debates for is to see how well the candidate can follow the rules. After all, the debate format is very carefully negotiated between the two candidates. If a candidate can’t follow their own rules for a two-hour debate, how much can I trust them over the next four years?
Of course, this is just one data point among many. I can’t see any single data point being the sole motivation for my vote.
I have always voted Republican in the past, but I’ve been seriously leaning toward an Obama protest vote this year. (What I really want is a “kick the Tea Party to the curb” vote, but that’s another topic). As a data point, the debate certainly weighs in Romney’s favor.
I wonder if now that Romney decided he was wrong abouy the 47%, it could show he says one thing in private and would do another in reality once he became president?. If that is how he would handle foreign heads of a country, or the American people, say one thing, then a few days later say,“Oh I was wrong”. Of course he wants the 47% that he put down, to vote for him.When it comes to the millions of Jobs he will create by some miracle, when it doesn’t happen does he say, "Oh I was wrong again?
I didn’t watch it, and it wouldn’t have changed my position in any case; as a Massachusetts resident, I’ve loathed Romney ever since he started running for President and trashing the state in the last election cycle.
As to the debate changing anyone’s vote, here’s a data point from P.M. Carpenter’s blog:
