My take on yesterday's presidential debate

When speaking at public events or fundraisers, presidential candidates are never alone. There’s a whole team behind them, a favorable audience that never puts them on the spot and even a stage designed for them to convey power and confidence. All of this makes them seem and probably feel larger than life. Take both conventions for example; they’re huge events that cost millions of dollars conceived for the sole purpose of making the candidates seem unbeatable.

As impressive as they are, these events rarely give you an insight on who they are as people, and I don´t mean learning about their private lives, what’s really interesting is to see them get nervous, to see them argue and come up with quick answers, that’s what we get from debates. And the first debate between President Obama and Governor Romney albeit technical at times –some even say boring– did give us an idea of how they deal with the pressure. Expectations were very low for the former governor of Massachusetts (John Cassidy of the New Yorker described him as: “A tax-avoiding human blooper machine, to whom English sometimes seems like a second language.") and very high for Obama, who’s proven to be an excellent public speaker.

It seemed like an easy win for the President, he just had to remind the viewers of Romney’s comments on the “47%” at a fundraiser in Boca Raton or to deliver that combination of suave and emotive he’s so well known for. None of this happened. Obama seemed out of rhythm and uncomfortable, he struggled to get his message across, unlike Romney who was on his toes the whole time. It was the Mittster’s show, he even managed to get in a few zingers that stayed on my mind after it was over, (even if they were clearly practiced). He was better prepared and calculated every detail, I’m sure his team even planned on how to handle the moderator Jim Lehrer, who proved to have no authority, allowing Romney to walk all over him and get the last word on every segment, even if it wasn’t his turn. It was a very smart move that left the president hanging, denying him a chance to clarify any accusation made at the end of each topic.

Fact-checking is important now, I’m sure many of Romney’s attacks and comebacks were just clever lies or cover-ups, particularly regarding his plan to cut taxes (which according to Obama would increase the deficit by 5 trillion). My stance hasn’t changed, I believe Obama was truthful but uncomfortable, it was an off day for him. Romney was slick and deceitful, nothing more than a salesman. Good for show but not necessarily for running a country.

 What we saw yesterday was a great exercise of democracy, it was very well organized and it revolved around the topics that matter. There’s much to be learned from this for developing countries like Mexico. I’m not sure if bipartisanship is the way to go here but it certainly makes for interesting debates.