After watching the presidential debate last night, the mainstream media is going into apoplectic shock as they try to figure out what happened. To say that Romney won the debate is the understatement of the century.

Bottom line – Romney looked presidential; Obama looked overwhelmed, stunned, and wondering when the next Jay-Z party was.

Multiple topics were discussed – the economy, healthcare, education, taxes, deficit, the role of government, and of course – governing.  Let’s take a look at a few…

Taxes and the Deficit

Obama stated that he would put forth a plan for to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion dollars over ten years. (I won’t go into the details, but that “plan” has been so debunked it is ludicrous that Obama is still even touting it. Feel free to read about it here, here, or here for starters.)

Romney called him on it by reminding Obama that he pledged to reduce the deficit in half during his first term while he continued to run a trillion dollar deficit for the fourth year in a row. Then Romney reminded Obama that the CBO has projected another four years of trillion dollar deficits if Obama was to be reelected.

Obama’s response was to point out that Romney’s plan to cut spending and lower the tax rates would decrease revenue making reducing the deficit impossible. As Obama stated – “It’s math, it’s arithmetic.”

Romney stated that his plan would increase the number of jobs and therefore the number of people actually paying taxes. By the way, the math does add up!!

Using the number of jobs they either claimed to have created (5 million — Obama) or will create (12 million — Romney) and at the Clinton-era tax rate of 39% which Obama wants (which we will round to 40%) and the Romney rate of 25% with all jobs having a salary of $50,000, each plan would generate the following revenue:

  • Obama: $100 Billion in tax revenue
  • Romney: $150 billion in tax revenue

Maybe Obama needs a new calculator.

The Economy – More precisely…Job Creation

Obama once again went the “You didn’t build that mantra” saying that the federal government needs to put in institutional mechanisms so, and I quote:

“…everyone gets their fair share…” as opposed to “…everyone has a fair shot…”

(Hmmm…Wonder if Obama will have a work requirement for getting your fair share?)

To pay for this, he wants rich people (those making more than $250K) to pay more in taxes for government intervention to help stimulate the economy. He called it “economic patriotism.”

Romney chided him that raising taxes on businesses – especially small business who are the job creators – will stifle growth and kill jobs. Also, that economic growth has continued to slow down during each year of Obama’s presidency to the point that the outlook is that we will slip into another recession if Obama is reelected – from the Huffington Post of all places.

Obama’s response was that 97% of small businesses have not seen their taxes increased. He then said that Romney would claim that the remaining 3% would be burdened with higher taxes.

Romney’s response – That 3% of small businesses you want to raise taxes on employ 25% of the American workforce.  Translation – Raise taxes on them and you will put people out of work.

Education

What’s the old saying? “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

 Last, but not least…

Governing/Leadership

Obama’s main theme of the night that Romney offered no specifics and that he has no details to go with these “plans” he is proposing. (This was so prevalent in the debate that I was about to start a drinking game taking a shot for every time he brought this up.)

Obama claimed to have worked with Republicans and Democrats to get things done in Washington.

Romney called him on that as well. Pointing out that showing up with a piece of legislation and saying that it is my way or the highway is not how you develop bi-partisan support. Using Obamacare – which the president says he likes – as the example, Romney pointed out that he held weekly meetings with Democratic leadership as governor of MA and that in the end only two people voted against Romneycare while not a single Republican voted for Obamacare.

So, which candidate was actually able to bring together the two sides during a debate on healthcare?

 Game, Set, MATCH…Thanks for playing!

By the way, Chris Matthews of MSNBC went into an epic meltdown after the debate. Ed Shultz was stunned. Rachel Maddow was spotted at her computer repeatedly voting in a CNN poll to get the Obama percentage up to 25%.  Even AARP has a problem with Obama using their name to support his ideas – for the second time.  

Even Bill Maher tweeted – “Looks like he (Obama) does need a teleprompter.”