November 6, 2012, the date of Election, and the date that will affect the future of America for years to come. This year President Obama and Vice President Biden face presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan on the ballot. Each duo has its own ideas and takes on its shoulders the trust of the American people in the future. Most importantly, they carry with them the issues of the immigration policy, terrorism, the deficit that is submerging the country, rate of job loss, and of course the issue of the failing economy. Both groups handle each of these issues differently. Obama and Biden maintain their strict adherence to Obama-care and their recent economic plans to rebound the trillions of dollars of deficit. Romney and Ryan on the other hand, formulate new economic plans, strongly criticizing the Obama health care system and how the United States proposes to eliminate its deficit. Their plans include a tax reduction of the middle class to 20%, greater concentration on aiding small businesses, and managing to cut Chinese “funding” of the United States economic plan.
Despite all this soothe-saying, many Americans did not get to know up-close-and-personal the plans of each of the dynamic duos. At least not until the presidential debate on October 3rd and the vice presidential debate on October 11th.
The presidential debate on October 3rd highlighted much of the two decisive plans of Obama and Romney. The debate recognized the strengths and weaknesses of the President and the Governor by truly understanding their plans and explaining them in a way the American public could understand. As the presidential debate opened up, one could clearly note the strength of Romney’s argument of his tax cuts and economic plan from the assurance in his voice to his personal experiences. This allowed many voters to see Romney’s plans strike more closely to home. Romney was helped even more as many websites and blogs like huffingtonpost.com specifically noted how tired the President seemed during the debate. Many bloggers replied that they saw Romney to be more confident. It was not noted until the last 20 minutes of the entire 90 minute debate that Obama really hammered Romney. The debate left many Democrats wondering whether or not Obama had won the debate.
The vice presidential debate however seemed to have more of a definite result. In the 90-minute debate, Biden interrupted Paul Ryan more than 90 times, with Paul Ryan only doing so 6 times. Biden seemed much stronger on his issues, largely due to the fact that he hadn’t been much of a backseat Vice President. Biden was more forceful on all his arguments, unlike the calm and less definite Paul Ryan. On several counter-arguments Paul Ryan seemed to fabricate his supports. Biden ,on the other hand, had more facts to support his reasoning (though many of his arguments seemed to lack a factual basis as well). His wide “I win” grin seemed to settle the question of who won. On the issues of Libya and job loss both candidates felt quite strongly on their issues; Biden clearly had a lead and defended his points radically. Despite his astounding 90 interruptions, Biden showed a clear win based on polls and viewer opinions after the vice presidential debate.
What does this mean to the American public? It could mean nothing in terms of how the election will turn out, however the debates allow the public to get the basic philosophies of each of the presidential candidates on how they propose to improve the future of America. Based on online polls Romney seems to be moving up.
With two more debates to come, much could change. The 2012 election won’t just be determined by the presidential debates however. Its outcome will depend upon the people. If the people of America decide that Romney is superior to Obama or vice versa, and either of them gets the chance to lead the future of America may depend upon how they do so.
The decision still lies in the hands of the American voters and their choice may spin the wheel of fate for better or worse.
Debate performances impact voter decisions
Chasen Shao '15, News Editor
November 7, 2012
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