Romney strong in first debate; Obama too cautious

DENVER -Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney came out swinging like a challenger taking on a boxing champion Wednesday night.

And a lot of his hits against President Barack Obama stung - knocking the incumbent off his game and leaving him to struggle with explanations and defenses on Obamacare, the economy, and Medicare, among other topics.

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama

After enduring weeks of negative headlines and doubts from Republican and conservative activists, Romney may have given them some hope about defeating Obama Nov. 3. NBC Political Director Chuck Todd opined that Romney came off as someone who knew details of his plan. Romney even zinged Obama by saying, "Mr. President, you're entitled to your own airplane and your own house, but not your own facts."

Obama, meanwhile, struggled to reiterate why his health care plan was beneficial to Americans. He also did a poor job playing to the camera while addressing viewers and rarely addressed Romney while responding - unless it was to give him a look of annoyance.

But the biggest surprise was that Obama didn't address Romney's comment about 47 percent of Americans who are victims dependent on government - the very comment that led to the negative headlines.

Overall, this debate was interesting - although both candidates were a bit long-winded at times with truths, half-truths, and lies. It didn't help that Big Bird and the debate's moderator, Jim Lehrer, are sure to become popular headlines than the candidates' plans for the country.

Romney said he would cut funding to programs such as Public Broadcasting Service despite his love for Big Bird and Lehrer himself.

Lehrer, meanwhile, lost control of the debate and struggled to keep the candidates on topic and to wait their turn to speak. Most notably, Romney wouldn't allow Lehrer to interject when his time was up or while Obama was responding to a question. Heck, even Obama got a little snippy with Lehrer, at one point saying, "I had five seconds until you interrupted me."

The good news for Obama and Democrats is that they have time to rebound before their next debate Oct. 16 at Hofstra University in New York. And as gaffe-prone as Vice President Joe Biden is, he knows how to debate and will be able to debate effectively against Paul Ryan, Romney's VP pick on Oct. 11.

I'll be writing thoughts and analysis about these debates and other news topics from now until Nov. 4. All arguments and opinions are encouraged.