Romney?s Big Night

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama after their debate on Wednesday night.

Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/GettyImages.

When Barack Obama entered the debate hall at the University of Denver Wednesday night, the air was clear and warm. When he left, the winds where whipping and the temperature had dropped 20 degrees. Coincidentally, that was also the same number of undecided voters who thought the president had a good debate.

In two different polls of undecided voters by CNN and CBS, Obama received grim reviews. In the CBS poll, 46 percent thought Romney had done the better job. Only 22 percent thought Obama prevailed. In the CNN poll, 67 percent thought Romney had performed well. Only 25 percent could say the same of Obama.? In another poll conducted with a group of ?Wal-Mart Moms? in Las Vegas, Romney also scored high. His image climbed 20 points, while Obama?s moved just 5. Many of the women had ?somewhat tuned out Mitt Romney,? according to the findings reported by a bipartisan polling team. ?After seeing him this evening several are now re-engaged and want to learn more about him. They were somewhat disappointed with President Obama?s performance. They do not believe he made the case for how another four years will be different or better.?

Instant polls are a small sample and they only take a momentary impression, but that?s all the Romney camp needed. Going into the debate Romney was on the long end of three bad weeks. Romney?s advisers were looking simply for a pause in the race?a moment for voters to take a second look at Romney. They got it Wednesday night.

Romney had two tasks. He had to explain why the president was a failure while also seeming appealing enough for voters to think he might have policies will succeed. The risk was that he would get the mix wrong. He?d come off as too aggressive and turn people off. Romney was certainly aggressive. ?You?ve had four years, ? he told the president during the discussion of deficit reduction. ?You said you'd cut the deficit in half. It's now four years later. We still have trillion-dollar deficits. You found $4 trillion to reduce or to get closer to a balanced budget, except we still show trillion-dollar deficits every year. That doesn't get the job done.?

Romney seemed alive to the challenge, almost like he was enjoying himself. He looked in command, like he belonged on stage with the president. Voters polled by CBS after the debate showed a dramatic increase in the number who thought Romney cared about them. Before the debate, only 30 percent said they thought Romney ?cares about your needs and problems.? After the debate, 63 percent believed he was more empathetic of others.

It was clear from the start of the debate that Romney was going for kinder and gentler. He spoke of two different voters he?d run into who were struggling in the economy. ?I was in Dayton, Ohio, and a woman grabbed my arm, and she said, ?I?ve been out of work since May. Can you help me??? Ann yesterday was at a rally in Denver, and a woman came up to her with a baby in her arms and said, ?Ann, my husband has had four jobs in three years, part-time jobs. He?s lost his most recent job, and we?ve now just lost our home. Can you help us??? And the answer is yes, we can help, but it?s going to take a different path.?

The president?s numbers also improved among those voters polled by CBS on the question of caring. He started with 53 percent, and by the end of the night, 69 percent said they thought Obama cared about them. It was the only bright spot of the night for Obama, who otherwise seemed listless and detached. When Romney spoke, Obama looked down at his notes and smiled, which conveyed something between low-stakes bemusement and ?I can?t believe I have to listen to this guy.? Perhaps that?s what happens when you?re president and people don?t often tell you that you?re wrong.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=b7d7f447a7f90a42318feb4ee99abdf5

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