First Debate in 2012 Election

On Weds., Oct. 3^rd, President Barack Obama and Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney went head to head in the first presidential debate of the 2012 general election. Throughout the debate, the topics ranged from the role of government, health care reform, with the economy taking center stage.

Governor Romney spoke of how he would cut many of the policies that President Obama put in place, including Obamacare. When speaking to the moderator Jim Lehrer, "I'd get rid of that. I'm sorry, Jim, I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird. Actually like you, too. But I'm not going to - I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for. That's number one."

President Obama lashed back, saying that Romney's plan was unbalanced and potentially disastrous. I think math, common sense, and our history shows us that's not a recipe for job growth. Look, we've tried this. We've tried both approaches. The approach that Governor Romney's talking about is the same sales pitch that was made in 2001 and 2003, and we ended up with the slowest job growth in 50 years."

One part of the debate that seemed most important to college students was the issue of access to education and budget cuts. President Obama brought up a previous comment that Romney stated before about students borrowing more money from their parents. "There may not be as much of a focus on the fact that folks like myself, folks like Michelle, kids probably who attend University of Denver, just don't have that option."

Governor Romney meanwhile quickly rebuffed the President's claim. "All right, I'm not going to cut education funding. I don't have any plan to cut education funding and - and grants that go to people going to college," said Romney. "I don't want to cut our commitment to education. I wanted to make it more effective and efficient."

However, at the end of the night, both candidates had tried to sway voters to choose them to be President of the United States. Obama closed by saying "I'd fight every single day on behalf of the American people, the middle class, and all those who were striving to get into the middle class." Romney meanwhile ended the night on a slightly different note. "It's an election about the course of America. What kind of America do you want to have for yourself and for your children."