Obama; then and now. Being President really wears on a person.
I’m afraid that I didn’t get to see all of the first presidential debate last night, so I can only speak about the last half hour or so of the debate.
I was surprised to see how much Obama was struggling to keep up with Romney. He was really struggling to keep his cool while Romney was keeping himself engaged in the conversation (sometimes too enthusiastically, even). Romney knew what he was talking about, or at least how appear that he knew what he was talking about. Obama seemed to be pulling insults and facts out of the air, only to have his opponent shoot them down. Neither candidate seemed to have much concern for the mediator, either; the poor man was talked over at least three times in the last half hour of the debate.
As for the issues the candidates covered, I’m leaning more towards Obama. While Romney certainly had the upper hand in terms of mannerisms and didn’t try to deviate away from questions or facts, Obama is heavily in favor of government-controlled financial aid for students. This is, of course, one of the biggest issues for college students, but I also agree with his idea that we need more healthcare reforms and that the military needs some spending cuts. I disagree with Romney’s idea of keeping our current military budget or even increasing it; we have been at war in a region that does not want us there anymore (and hasn’t wanted us there for the past several years) and spent trillions on operations that are not getting us anywhere. Thousands of soldiers have died in a conflict that has gone on for too long and needs to end now, and all of the funds we are funneling into the war can be better spent on domestic programs that are in dire need of money.
I wish I could be more insightful into this issue, but I am not the most politically aware individual. Again, I only caught the last half hour of the debate, so my opinions may be a little bit different than others.
I also was surprised by Romney's "win", simply because Obama usually carries himself so well in a debate. I would have to agree with you though, I lean more towards Obama on the issues that matter to me, like pulling out of the war, cutting military spending, and focusing more on domestic programs and national healthcare. Also, financial aide, because like you said, we're college students!
ReplyDeleteI read a few articles post-debate, however, that thought Obama may have purposely lightened up on Romney so not to appear hostile and rather appear confident in his voters and his title as president. I found that an interesting strategy if it's true.
Honestly, I'm more interested to watch the VP debates. I do like Joe Biden, but I think he has a hard time speaking publicly. It will be interesting to see if Paul Ryan will make up for Romney's lack of charisma, because I think Romney is everything but charismatic haha.