President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney have clashed over their economic plans in the first of three televised debates.
In their Denver duel, the candidates contrasted their approach on taxes, the deficit and healthcare.
Barack Obama said he would ensure Americans were “playing by the same rules”. His rival said re-electing Barack Obama would continue a “middle-class squeeze”.
The president has held a narrow lead in recent opinion polls.
He went into the debate ahead in national polls and in many surveys in the swing states that will decide the election.
But he faced a confident opponent on the debate stage, with Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, sounding bullish throughout.
By contrast, the president at times appeared hesitant, occasionally asking moderator Jim Lehrer, of US public television network PBS, for time to finish his points.
Throughout the debate, each man attempted to paint his rival as a disaster for working American families.
They traded barbs on their economic plans, with Barack Obama describing his rival’s approach as “top-down economics” and a retread of Bush-era policies.
“If you think by closing [tax] loopholes and deductions for the well-to-do, somehow you will not end up picking up the tab, then Governor Romney’s plan may work for you,” he said.
“But I think math, common sense, and our history shows us that’s not a recipe for job growth.”
Mitt Romney derided Barack Obama’s policies as “trickle-down government”.
“The president has a view very similar to the one he had when he ran for office four years ago, that spending more, taxing more, regulating more – if you will, trickle-down government – would work,” Mitt Romney said.
“That’s not the right answer for America.”
Mitt Romney pledged not to reduce taxes for wealthy Americans, and said Barack Obama had misrepresented Romney’s tax plans on the campaign trail.
He hit out at the president for failing to cut the budget deficit in half as he pledged in 2008, and insisted that the US must not allow itself to go down the path of Greece or Spain.
Clashing repeatedly with Jim Lehrer over the time clock, Mitt Romney said that in order to reduce the $1.1tn US budget deficit he would repeal Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law and cut other unspecified programmes.
Barack Obama deflected criticism of his fiscal management, highlighting Mitt Romney’s pledge not to raise additional tax revenue. He said Mitt Romney’s approach to deficit reduction was “unbalanced” as a result.
“There has to be revenue in addition to cuts,” Barack Obama said.
On healthcare, Mitt Romney said that Barack Obama’s “Obamacare” reform law of 2010 had increased health costs and kept small businesses from hiring.
Even as he pledged to repeal Barack Obama’s health law, Mitt Romney praised and defended a plan he himself had previously signed as governor of Massachusetts that is widely hailed as the model for the Obama law.
Barack Obama, meanwhile, said his plan had kept insurance companies from denying coverage to sick people.
As the debate ended, each candidate’s allies rushed to talk up their man’s performance.
“The average person at home saw a president who you could trust,” Barack Obama adviser David Plouffe told reporters.
“That’s what the American people are looking for.”
But senior Mitt Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom said the president had spoken “only in platitudes”.
“If this was a boxing match, it would have been called an hour into the fight,” he added.
The University of Denver debate was the first in a series of three presidential forums and one vice-presidential encounter this month.
Running-mates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan will meet in Danville, Kentucky on 11 October, before the second presidential debate on 16 October.
[youtube 7MDeMI-MeS0]
President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney are making final preparations for the first of three crucial presidential debates.
With just 34 days to go until election day, Wednesday’s Denver debate will focus on domestic policy issues.
Mitt Romney has long criticized the president for his economic record, but is likely to face questions over his own tax plans and immigration policy.
Barack Obama has opened up a narrow lead in the race over the past month.
He leads Mitt Romney in national polls and in many recent polls conducted in the swing states that will decide the election.
The latest national survey, released on Tuesday by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, shows Barack Obama leading, but by just 49% to 46%.
Mitt Romney has struggled in the polls since a secretly filmed recording emerged of him telling a private fundraising event that the 47% of Americans who did not pay income tax viewed themselves as “victims” and were dependent on government help.
Wednesday’s debate at the University of Denver will be the first time voters across the US have had the chance to see Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on stage together.
Both men have already been on the campaign trail for months, and used their prime-time speaking slots at the recent party conventions to make their case to voters.
An even bigger audience is expected for this first debate: the opening head-to-head of the 2008 election attracted more than 50 million TV viewers across the US.
The candidates’ body language will be heavily scrutinized, as will their tone of voice and how they handle themselves under pressure. Media pundits and campaign spin doctors will attempt to seize on any gaffe or mis-statement in an effort to claim victory.
Both campaigns have been playing down their man’s prospects in the run-up to the debate, with Barack Obama praising his opponent’s debating skills and Mitt Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan insisting that one debate alone will not change the campaign.
Nevertheless, both candidates’ messages are well-honed, and their sharp words for each other are familiar to millions of swing-state voters who have faced a onslaught of mostly negative TV advertisements in recent months.
Mitt Romney’s campaign is based around his belief that Barack Obama’s stewardship of the US economy has been a dismal failure. He points to an enduringly high unemployment rate (currently 8.1%) and poor job growth, and says his experience in business will turn the US economy around.
Barack Obama, by contrast, says his opponent offers little except a rehashing of the “failed” Republican policies that caused the economic crash of 2008.
The president proposes tax rises for the wealthiest Americans to help reduce the federal budget deficit, and says his opponent’s plans would hurt the middle class.
But critics say neither man has fully fleshed out his economic policies, and doubts remains about how either Republican or Democrat will tackle the $15 trillion US deficit.
The two candidates have been largely absent from the campaign trail in recent days, shutting themselves away with aides for hours of rigorous preparation and practice.
Mitt Romney, who is known for his meticulous approach to debates, arrived in Denver on Monday and has been using Ohio Senator Rob Portman to play the role of Barack Obama.
The president, meanwhile, has been preparing in Las Vegas, Nevada, with 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry reportedly playing Mitt Romney.
With the principals waiting in the wings, Tuesday saw vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan take centre stage.
Joe Biden stole the headlines, telling a campaign rally in North Carolina that the US middle class had been “buried” for four years. The remark was seized on gleefully by the Romney campaign.
“Of course the middle class has been buried,” Paul Ryan said in Iowa later on.
“They’re being buried by the Obama administration’s economic failures.”
Presidential election debates 2012:
• October 3rd: Denver, Colorado. Domestic policy. Moderated by Jim Lehrer (PBS)
• October 11th: Danville, Kentucky. Vice-presidential debate. Moderated by Martha Raddatz (ABC)
• October 16th: Hempstead, New York. Town-hall style foreign policy debate. Moderator: Candy Crowley (CNN)
• October 22nd: Boca Raton, Florida. Moderator: Bob Schieffer (CBS)
[youtube JvD48EeDGNY]
[youtube D0fPJ1KB48k]
