A CNN poll of 430 registered voters said 67 per cent of respondents believe Romney won the debate, compared to only 25 per cent who said Obama came out on top.
Also, a CBS poll of more than 500 undecided voters showed 46 per cent believe Romney won the debate, 22 per cent believe Obama won, and 32 per cent say they tied.
According to the Nielsen TV ratings service about 40 million people watched the televised debate.
The 90-minute debate at the University of Denver, Colorado, saw Romney keeping focus on jobs and the sorry state of the US economy and Obama forced to defend his record.
Romney took an aggressive stand from the start of the debate, questioning the president’s record on the economy, the deficit and health care, while articulating his own plans to revive the country out of the greatest economic downturn since the 1930s.
President Obama appeared subdued, occasionally asking moderator Jim Lehrer, of US public television network PBS, for time to finish his points, the BBC reports.
Romney appeared practiced and at ease while Obama’s answers appeared slow, cautious and shaky. On the economy, Obama described 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.”
Romney, however, derided Obama’s policies as “trickle-down government”.
He said, “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. That’s not the right answer for America.”
On healthcare, Romney said that Obama’s “Obamacare” reform law of 2010 had increased health costs and kept small businesses from hiring.
Meanwhile, Obama, said his plan had kept insurance companies from denying coverage to sick people.
At the debate, Romney kept on reminding voters of their economic woes and blamed Obama’s policies for contribution to slow job growth, increasing poverty and home foreclosures and further questioned Obama’s economic competence.
Obama had his moments, like on Romney’s tax plans, but he lost the debate on style, and failed to even highlight issues thought to be Romney’s Achilles’ heel such as Romney’s business record at Bain Capital, the “47 per cent” video and his refusal to release more income tax returns.
While giving his closing remarks, Obama said he wants to expand the accomplishments of his first four years in the White House. He said he will work for change just as hard in a second term as he did in his first.
Romney, who had the last word in the nationally televised debate, said re-electing the president would mean more hardship for the American middle class.
Speaking in Denver after the debate, Obama accused Romney of being dishonest. He urged his rival to tell the “truth” about his own policies.
Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod said, “Romney came to give a performance and he gave a good performance and we will give him credit for that. The problem with it is that none of it was rooted in fact.”
Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg responded to the accusations of dishonesty by saying the Obama camp “offered no defence of the president’s first term record or vision for a second term, and instead, offered nothing but false attacks, petulant statements, and lies about Romney’s record.”
With the two more presidential debates and a vice-presidential debate scheduled in quick succession in the final weeks before the November 6 election, Obama could yet return to putting a negative twist on his attacks against Romney.
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