Obama versus Romney: Round Two

So Obama and Romney had their town hall debate tonight (full video below).

As I blogged after the last debate, it was essential for Obama to come out strong in this debate.

So what's my PR verdict?  I'd have to say tonight's debate goes to Romney, but only ever so slightly (I'm almost on the fence in terms of calling this a draw).

The President did come out strong tonight and it was the first time we've seen him standing toe-to-toe with Romney and vigorously stand his ground.

However, Romney has maintained his stride from the last performance and came out just as strong as he did in the first debate. In fact, Romney may have been a little better than in his first debate because he was a tad more prosecutorial of Obama, hammer him on broken promises and failed policies.

Romney effectively voiced the concerns that every day folks have, which is something he has not successfully done to date with any real authenticity.

So while Obama came out strong, so did Romney.

The biggest win for Romney by stringing together two very good performances is that he now, I believe, looks presidential to the American public. He is now someone that people look at and can see as their president.

That's a HUGE problem for Obama in that this election is, in the end, going to be about the economy. And given the state of the economy, people are very open to voting for an alternative to Obama provided that alternative appears to be a viable presidential choice.

So let's do a quick breakdown of the PR pros and cons in tonight's debate:

Romney 

Pro

• Focused Message
• Just hammered the economic points over and over - gasoline has doubled in price since Obama took office, the deficit has doubled, the national debt is at 16T on its way to 20T, etc. 
• Strung together a good list of reasons why he can fix things... such as balancing the budget while he was in business, while governor and while running the Olympics (hence implying that if says he'll balance the budget, that's what he'll do).
  
• Looked Presidential
• This may seem trivial, but because Romney is older and a little taller than the president, when they stand side-by-side, Romney 'appears' more presidential than the president (he came off as the alpha male over Obama). The open floor, visually, played to Romney's favor. 
• The only time Obama reversed this and appeared more the alpha male was in his rebuttal over Bengahzi.
  
• Rebutted hard
• Every time Obama came at Romney with accusations that he's not telling the truth, Romney not only rebutted him every time but then attacked Obama on his record just as aggressively.

Cons

• The ask
• Romney really didn't  have any cons tonight. But the one thing Romney could have done was at some point during the night work in 'an ask' from voters. 
• Something to the effect "I'm asking you to give me the chance to turn this economy around." While it's a bit of a pandering move, people like it because it shows a degree of humility... that the candidate understands that the power lies with the voter.  

Obama

Pros

• Showed he still has fight
• Obama came out swinging and that's what he had to do. He's re-established that he wants to be president and that will stem the voter bleed that was happening from the last debate.
  
• Focused attack messaging
• He hammered Romney on just about every front. From outsourcing to Big Bird to flip flopping, he did his best to re-establish the narrative that Romney is just another guy who will say or do anything to get elected.
  
• Good counter-response on Libya
• The biggest threat to Obama was the mess over Bengahzi and he handled that extremely well. He should have had egg on his face on that one and yet he managed to use it to assure voters that the safety of American diplomats is his top priority at all times.

Cons

Obama didn't really have any cons tonight either. The major con for Obama, which is something Romney doesn't have to face, is his record in contrast to his 2008 promises.

• No response to the biggest issues
• Obama simply had no responses to why gas is double what it was four years ago or why when he said he'd cut the deficit in half it he doubled it. Romney doesn't have to face those questions, but Obama does, and not admitting that he over promised in 2008 is a pretty big mistake for voters that care about these things.
• I stated in a previous post that Obama needs to fess up to how bad things are. If he doesn't do this, then nothing he says is taken as seriously as it should be. Tonight, instead of addressing many of the issues Romney attacked him with, Obama merely struck back at Romney without addressing the issue. 
• This is mostly why I have to give the debate to Romney by an edge. Obama is not going to win over independent voters if he does not first acknowledge that he knows just how bad things are out there. Skirting the topic every time it's brought up is not going to win him those votes.

Conclusion

So there you have it, two down, one to go.  I think the effect of this debate on the polls will be negligible, which is slightly bad news for Obama given Romney has been trending positively for the past couple of weeks and is now neck-and-neck with Obama. 

I question whether the third debate is really going to matter given it's about foreign policy and Romney and Obama essentially have the same stances on foreign policy, so I doubt whether anything substantive will come out of it.

The one caveat however is with regards to any developments that arise regarding Bengahzi between now and the debate. Should that whole situation get messier, then Obama could be in some real trouble. 

That said, provided the third debate is a snooze-fest (which I think it will be), it looks like the election will be a nail biter.  

The ultimate take-away at this point in the campaign is:

Obama should be ashamed of himself on the PR front for letting Romney get back in this race. 

And Romney should be ashamed of himself for having such a hard time challenging a president that has failed to turn the economy around and has broken so many of his 2008 promises. 

If Romney wins this election, and I think he very well could, we will look back on the first debate Romney had with Obama as a debate that dethroned a sitting president. It will be a textbook PR blunder that PR folks will talk about for years to come. 

It really does go to show the impact PR has on the world around us.

It would be a far better world if people picked their president based on their platforms, policies and track record, but a single debate performance (a PR blunder of epic proportions) may be what ultimately costs Obama the re-election.