Presidential Campaigns 2012 – Debate Flow Assignment

Posted: September 9th, 2013

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Presidential Campaigns 2012 – Debate Flow Assignment

Content Flow

Candidates to the United States presidential seat Barrack Obama and Mitt Romney took   a break from their respective campaign trails, for a face-to-face encounter in a presidential campaign debate session. Political strategy maintains that presidential debates involve playing down expectations rather than pinning down the opponent and highlighting one’s policies. This is because the debate will run for a whole 90 minutes on unedited live prime-time television. This will be the first time interested parties will see Obama and Romney interact side by side and their response from the spot. Certainly, Obama is carrying the burden of high hopes from polls suggesting that he will outdo Romney.

In the debate, President Obama and Mitt Romney were in sharp contrast over Medicare, taxes, and the deficit. Mr. Romney was seemingly in command of the debate while President Obama appeared hesitant and subdued, and on certain occasions asked the debate moderator to grant him more time so he could exhaust his points. The main theme of the debate revolved around how the presidential aspirants for next term designed their economic plans, taxation policies, and addressing healthcare issues. In this regard, the two presidential aspirants attacked each other’s design on economic plans with president Obama describing Romney’s approach as a retread of the policies enforced in Bush’s era as well as “top down economics”.

As he stated, “If you prefer to closedown deductions and loopholes for the well-off and feel that you will somehow end up without picking the tab, then I suppose Governor Romney’s design may apply. Nevertheless, I common sense, history, and math can attest that is a wrong solution for job growth”. President Obama spoke of returning to office in the midst of the economic crisis and pointed out the economic progress America had made – the auto industry recovery, job growth of the private sector, and the gradual yet assured market-housing resurrection. He asserted that this progress would be compromised if Romney’s economic policies were to be implemented – that is, if he was elected to office.

On the other hand, Mr. Romney attacked the design of President Obama’s economic plan and described it as “trickle-down governance”. As he stated, “President Obama dwells on the same view he stuck to four years ago when he was running for office, that taxing more, spending more, and regulating more – trickle down governance if you will – would work. This is not the solution for our nation”. Mr. Romney’s pledge involved a taking a stand on not reducing taxes on well-off Americans and stated that president Obama passed a misrepresentation of Mr. Romney’s tax design during the campaign trail.

On the Healthcare issue, Governor Romney stated that president Obama’s “Obamacare” 2010 health care reform policy had ultimately increased costs of health and inhibited hiring of new staff by small businesses. In his pledge to redesign the health policy put in force by Obama, Governor Romney defended and praised his previously signed plan as Massachusetts governor that is vastly hailed as Obama’s law model. Meanwhile, president Obama asserted that Romney’s plan prevented insurance companies offering coverage to sick American citizens.            When the debate concluded, commentators confirmed that Romney did a better performance than Obama in the debate. Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman concluded that Romney showed a brilliant performance and Obama had a terrible day. Nevertheless, Krugman maintained that the performance of a candidate in a debate should not foster a criticism theater; rather it should revolve around substance. He further stated that most of what governor Romney put forward was either misleading or outright false.

Analysis

On analysis of the responses given by the two candidates, it can be established Mitt Romney offers high quality arguments. He was well informed and seemed to have been practicing for this occasion. In a battle of confidence and image, clearly, Mitt Romney was the winner. He looked into the eyes of president Obama with animation whenever he interrupted him, insisting on a comeback and overriding the moderator. He seemed in command of the debate. In addition, he posts a confident posture but is rather straightforward with a little humor. On the other hand, president Obama is relatively coherent in his arguments. He seemingly argues from a general point of view with little supporting evidence supporting his statements. He started out nervously, and he was not the confident speaker people are used to. Republicans feel Obama used the debate to focus on middle classes and job creation.

Determination

From the analysis statement made above, this report can establish that Governor Mitt Romney used the debate to advance his presidential campaign more successfully as compared to his opponent Barrack Obama. The deciding factor is represented by Obama’s stumbling block in confidence posture. With Romney having the upper hand from the debate, his success can be attributed to his attack minded approach. However, President Obama should not feel defeated since history suggests that presidential debates are not significant determinants of the outcome.