Debatable

By now, we've seen the first presidential debate as well as the vice presidential debate. The consensus on both sides of the aisle is that President Obama didn't perform well, Mitt Romney rocked it out and VP Biden and Rep. Ryan battled to a draw.

As for the first debate, I don't think Obama lost it as much as Romney won it. If you look at most of the polls, Obama usually sat at around 46-48%, prior to the debate, Romney was usually a few points less. What that tells me is that about 52-54% are not sold on Obama

. Let's face it, we've seen him in action for almost four years and like him or not, we know what we have in him. That leads me to believe that there were some voters who, while not sold on Obama, were not conviced that Romney was a better alternative.I've been somewhat critical of Romney for focusing on all the reasons not to vote for Obama and not giving people a reason to vote for Romney.

 If things haven't gone well for you in the last four years, you don't need Mitt Romney to tell you how bad things are, you need him to tell you how he will make things better.The presidential debate gave Romney a great opportunity to sell himself to voters.

 A debate like this is skewed to help the challenger. Mitt Romney can paint a rosy picture of how things will be under his watch, while all the President can do try to defend his record, which is quite a challenge. At times, he seemed like a kid in the Principal's office trying to explain how the pot got in his locker (it was Bush's, I swear!). The polls don't show a large loss for Obama, just a nice gain for Romney.

I know that there are two more debates to go, but barring a major gaffe, I don't think either candidate will gain or lose too much from those. Up until a few weeks ago, I thought that foriegn policy would be a strength for the president. After the fumble on Libya and his decision to hang with Whoopie instead of Netanyahu, I think Romney can score some points on foreign policy.

Now for Biden vs Ryan. One of the burdens of a presidential debate is the need to "act presidential". Ryan and Biden didn't have that pressure.  Essentially, they act as surrogates for the tops of the ticket. People don't vote for vice president. After all, Dan Quayle was no Jackie Kennedy, but Lloyd Bentsen was no vice president

.Neither did anything to hurt their respective ticket, and I don't think anyone hit a home run (although, at times, it looked like Biden wanted to hit Ryan).

 The next few weeks will be fun. Personally, I think this will be a very close election. I just hope it doesn't make 2000 look like a landslide!