A few things worth noticing.
I was watching CBS which had scott pelley come on afterwards.
When they showed the split screen between obama and romney, they did that far more often while Obama spoke and almost never while Romney spoke. When Romney spoke they almost always had the full screen showing only romney.
With the split screen, the right side of the screen which showed Obama was zoomed in slightly more, so he looked slightly taller than Romney, but by looking closely it was obvious that the camera on obama was closer to him. An appearance of looking taller subconsciously influences the viewer to see that person as having authority.
Secondly, the camera on Obama was in focus, and it looked like HD. His face looked very clear and very sharp. On the Romney side of the split screen, the camera was out of focus - at times the letters in the background looked slightly clearer than the letters behind obama (which is evidence the camera was out of focus), but throughout the entire debate Romney's face looked blurry compared to Obama's.
These are some of the ways in which the media hopes to shape public perception of the debate.
Overall, I think Romney beat him, although a Chaim ben Pesach would have obviously skewered obama in a much stronger style, Romney did highlight some important failures of obama policy. Particularly, by raising the point about crushing the middle class, 47 million on food stamps and the number of unemployed. And a federal government takeover of healthcare. He did stress those repeatedly, although he probably should have repeated them a few times more.
There was one place where Jim Lehr tried to coach Obama. But for most of the debate Lehrer was overpowered by Romney because Lehrer is simply too old and couldn't control it. That was definitely a good thing. Other moderators will try to control the discussion and silence Romney more. He did a really good job tonight of making sure he got his points in and his responses to incorrect statements by ozero.
Topic: 2012 Debates! (Read 1694 times)