And The Winner Is...

This evening America had the opportunity to watch President Obama and Governor Romney debate one another for the first time.  I watched the debate on CNN with a friend and a few beers.  I tried to take good notes and was eager to hear Romney's "zingers" that he's allegedly been working on for the past several weeks.  I think I heard a few of them like "trickle down government" and "economy tax".  If you watched it you probably had a few in mind yourself.

A friend of mine asked who I thought won.  I am obviously quite partisan and biased, so my vote in November is pretty obvious.  In spite of that, I had to say that I think the advantage went to Governor Romney in this first debate.  The advantage is held by the challenger in these debates as the incumbent is constantly on the defensive attempting to defend the record of the first four years.  I think Romney used that advantage quite effectively this evening.

The important take away however is not who won or who lost.  As a member of the electorate, you need to decide who presents a better set of policies for you.  I was particularly amused by Governor Romney's cherry picking approach as Jim Lehrer attempted (unsuccessfully I may add) to moderate a direct comparison between the candidate's policies on key domestic issues.  Romney attempted to select the positive aspects of legislation passed during the past four years while at the same time leaving the electorate completely in the dark as to how he would work with Congress to craft legislation that would implement the rest of "his plan". Analytically, you have to decide if you heard enough detail from either candidate to support your vote for that set of policies.  I didn't hear any specifics from Romney,only generalizations and the "likes" he borrowed from President Obama.

I'll end this post with the following thought - Governor Romney stated one of the primary purposes of government is to defend the Constitution.  Along those lines he claims that the principles of Freedom and Liberty can be achieved through a strong military.  How specifically are Freedom and Liberty achieved in a domestic sense through a strong military?  I'm not convinced.