Delawareans got their chance to listen to President Barak Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney argue their platforms directly to each other in the first of three televised presidential debates Wednesday.
The debate, which focused on the economy, health care and government’s role in people’s lives, were supposed to give people a view of the two men vying for the U.S. presidency. First Staters viewing the debate appeared to side with their party affiliation.
Ken Currie, 67, of Dagsboro, held a watch-the-debate party with about a dozen fellow Republicans at his house. And he and others there felt Romney was the winner.
“If you have to assign who won, they felt the governor certainly won,” Currie said. “I was very pleased with his performance. He had the facts, and he was articulate with them. He was intense.”
“Yes, it was logical and it was factual, but there was an emotional component.”
Kevin McAllister, president of Alpha Phi Alpha and a registered Democrat, hosted a crowd of about 50 people for a watch-party at Paradise Palms Restaurant in Wilmington. McAllister, 36, of Bear, a project manager for DuPont Co., said “President Obama won tonight simply because he was able to give details.”
He added that both men were eloquent, but “Obama had a real plan.”
Delaware State University political science professor Samuel Hoff, who viewed the Wednesday debate, gave it to Romney. He felt the men tied in several of the nine points brought up, but Romney won most of them and gave Obama only a single point. read more…
