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Washington
Post
Romney
goes on offense, forcing Obama to defend record
By Dan
Balz and Amy
Gardner
October 3
DENVER
— An energetic Mitt Romney launched a series of attacks against
President Obama
here Wednesday night, calling into question the president’s record on
the
economy, health care and the deficit, and arguing that he would take
the
country in a fundamentally different direction.
Obama
sought to parry Romney’s criticisms, charging that his presidential
rival
favors a top-down approach to the economy that would reward the
wealthiest
Americans at the expense of the middle class and that the details of
the
Republican’s proposals don’t add up. But he found himself on the
defensive
repeatedly during their first debate, held at the University of Denver.
Romney
came into the 90-minute exchange after several difficult weeks but
appeared
rejuvenated by the opportunity to take his case directly to Obama and
the
American people. He was well prepared and aggressive as he hammered the
president. The contrast with Obama was striking, as the president
appeared less
energetic even as he rebutted some of Romney’s toughest attacks.
The
debate is likely to give Romney what he needed most, which is a fresh
look from
voters — at least those who are undecided or open to changing their
minds — and
will change the conversation about the campaign, which for the past two
weeks
has been tilted in the president’s favor. Romney now faces the
challenge of
trying to build on his performance and keep the president on the
defensive in the
days ahead.
Romney
offered conservative policies throughout the evening but he often
sounded more
moderate than he does in campaign appearances. He is likely to face a
challenge
from Obama and the Democrats in the coming days about the contrast in
tone and
posture on display during the night.
But Republicans
were immediately cheered
by the
aggressiveness they saw in Romney and took it as a sign that he will
wage a
fierce battle between now and Nov. 6…
Read
the rest of the article plus view a video at the Washington Post
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