The most recent debate between Mitt Romney, President Obama and moderated by Candy Crowley perfectly illustrates, in a microcosm, what Romney is up against in his run for president. It’s not just that he has to present his side of the issues and then let the people make their mind. No, he has to present them in an unfriendly environment, to an unfriendly interviewer (moderator), and then has to spend his limited time pointing out the disingenuous answers that are given by the President.

I will defend that statement in a second. But, first let me say that Romney acquitted himself very well last night. He had command of the facts and made point after point concerning jobs, the economy, and both our debt and growing deficit. He had Obama constantly trying to defend his record, and I don’t think Obama’s answers on the economy, or much else, are going to play very well with undecided voters.  Both sides are claiming victory on this one, but Obama needed a decisive victory to stop the bleeding. He didn’t get it. Like the VP debate of last week, the talk is about Crowley and Obama’s deceptive answer, not the issues. Round two to the challenger.

Unfriendly environment; each of these four debates is being held at a university; supposedly neutral territory. But, last night shows, by the cheering (presumably by the students, and not the press) when Crowley “fact checked” on an answer the president gave. The vast and overwhelming majority of our colleges have become indoctrination centers for not only liberalism, but socialism. The fact that attendees could not contain themselves, when “their man” was supposedly vindicated, is proof positive. Why are none of the debates being held at places like Hillsdale College, Grove College, Pepperdine, or even in a non-university setting? Where is it written that the conservative must always be on hostile ground?

Unfriendly reporter: The prime directive of a debate moderator is to stay objective and neutral. Candy Crowley was not that. It started with the second question of the debate. In a debate there is a back and forth. Debater #1 gets the question; Debater #2 gets the last word. In the first question, about Jobs, Romney got the question, and Obama got the last word. On the next question, about gas prices, they went back and forth, but the last response should have gone to Romney. He had to call Crowley on that, and then when she tried to brush him off, talk over her to get his point across. She constantly let the president run over on his allotted time and Obama ended up with 11% more talking time.

Then we have the questions. And remember, these were not random questions. They were fully screened, chosen, and even who would get which question was decided by Candy Crowley and her staff. There was nothing random about what was asked or who it was asked to. Question #4 was about the “fact” that women make only 72% of what women do. This is an old half truth, which has been debunked time and time again. Women who have worked for the same company, for the same amount of time, doing the same job, make almost the same amount of money. The discrepancy is no where near 28 cents on 

While I do predict that Mitt Romney will become the next president of the United States, and I do not think this race is anywhere near decided, after watching this first 2012 Presidential debate, this was the first time that the words “President Romney” actually formed in my mind.

I know that is an odd thing to think this late in the race.  But up until now, I really only considered Romney as the Republican nominee. He was just the face I was attaching to the job of removing Obama from office. But, about the time Mitt was interrupting Jim Lehrer, and preventing Obama from ending the segment by mis-stating (polite word for lying) about his tax plan, the words “President Romney” came to me.

Mitt Romney looked presidential. He took control of the debate. He refused to be buffaloed by the moderator. In the first segment, Romney had to remind Lehrer that since Obama started it he got the last word. Then realizing he was not going to get an even hand from the liberal Jim Lehrer, he took control of this situation. That is the attitude I want in a President. That is the kind of tenacity and passion I want to see from the Leader of the Free World.

Then Romney also came across as the man who could bring people together. He touted his record as Massachusetts’ governor; working with the opposition majority (87% Democrat he repeated several times) in getting things done. He painted Obama as a dictator shoving his ideas and ways down the American people’s throat, and then watching as Obama feebly attempted to claim that ObamaCare was a bipartisan effort and that he listened to ideas from all sides.

Obama looked ill prepared and out of his league.  I chalk this up to Obama's own arrogance, narcissism, as well as his coddling by the leftstream media. Romney has had a dogfight for the last eight years to get to where he is. He has had to face down and debate the likes of Newt Gingrich and a constant hostile media. Obama has been treated with kit gloves by most of the press since it was evident that he would beat Hillary for the nomination in 2008. He had no primaries to temper him and his debates with John McCain were against a man who had decided certain topics were hands off. Couple that with Obama’s narcissistic attitude that he always the smartest man in the room and this is the result you get.

It was evident how much Obama missed his teleprompter. Without it to feed him his words, he was constantly fumbling around for the right thing to say, stalling with pauses and uh-ums and looking down to either hide his dislike for being there or his contempt of Romney. He came across as petulant and untrustworthy.  Obama was on his heals virtually the whole time, defending and parrying. Even when he tired to go on the offensive he sound like a campaign ad and not a man qualified to lead America to the bathroom, let alone out of this economic malaise. 

How about RomneyCare? I was dreading that part. Obama was going to shred Romney on passing a bill that many argue is the same as ObamaCare. Romney turned it into a story of bipartisan camaraderie and had Obama wondering what the hell just happened.

 Romney, on the other hand, looked calm, cool, level headed and had his facts. He belted out stat after stat, and challenged Obama at every turn. Obama says “tax breaks for corporations to move companies overseas” and Romney calls him on it, (‘I have 25 years of business experience and I have no idea what