Review writers respond to the final presidential debate:

Mike Navarro:

The truest thing said tonight after the debate was that if you had been on an island for the past four years and saw this debate, you would have thought that Mitt Romney was the incumbent and Barack Obama was the challenger. Once again, Romney appeared to be the more presidential of the two candidates. To be honest, I felt that Obama started strong. To be even MORE honest, I felt that this was the strongest debate performance that Obama has ever delivered.

He still could not beat Mitt Romney.

This election will go down to the wire, but I genuinely believe that Mitt Romney is the best choice for and all of our futures, as well as my own.

Noah Kantro:

Obama: Can anyone take this man seriously anymore? He talks and talks and talks but there are four years of history contradicting his words at every turn. He is supposed to deal intimately with these foreign policy issues every day, yet it is his Achilles’ heel. The Middle East, stabilized? Oblivious. The economy, strong? Laughable. Israel, closer than ever? Fantasy. Iran’s nuclear program brought to its knees? Since when? Every objective analysis and report screams a more dangerous, unstable, and anti-American world. Obama’s frantic cries to the contrary and attacks against Mitt do nothing to change the truth—his policies have failed, the country is weaker, and four more years can do nothing but push us closer to the fiscal cliff.

Romney: The challenger continues to impress. While not as strong as his first appearance, and by position not as knowledgeable of the government’s inner workings over the past four years, Romney showed a clear and cogent knowledge of the issues and laid out a clear vision for economic and thereby foreign resurgence. He deftly deflected the CinC’s attacks and refocused the debate on the tried and true vision of peace through strength at the essence of foreign policy.

Schieffer: Thank you to the most calm, composed, and intelligent moderator of the campaign.

Misha Checkovich:

It’s clear that the wind is at Mitt Romney’s back heading into the final stretch of the election. Tonight, he looked and sounded more presidential by far than the current president, and that ties into the larger theme of a tired and backward Obama administration (despite all their protestations otherwise) that has run out of ideas and the steam to execute the remaining ones effectively. What irked me the most was Obama’s continuous pivots back to sinking federal dollars and tentacles into local matters—and thinking that if only we could just hire more teachers and retrofit more cars we could get ourselves out of this malaise. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney looked tremendous, had great, optimistic energy, and conveyed the temperament necessary for being a serious player on the world stage. Barack Obama started his career organizing the rougher neighborhoods of Chicago. Now he’s “organizing the international community”, with roughly the same results—a descent into violence, a disintegration of the social fabric, and the complete abdication of the responsibility that comes with the job of the presidency.

Cornell Review writers on the first presidential debate:

Roberto Matos:

Crisp, concise and collected! Few could doubt that Romney was essentially lecturing the insipid, listless and evasive Obama. Romney’s gaze never seemed to leave the President, while Obama submissively accepted the rhetorical clobbering.

The domination was relentlessly complete — in style, substance, conviction and earnestness. It is puzzling to think that Obama has gained a reputation for being a masterful or sensational speaker, or debater. I mean, really?? He rambled constantly, and his statements consisted of random and unrelated thoughts strung together with only a thin veneer of coherence.

Romney’s exhaustively described defenses for empowering small businesses, forgoing tax increases, and strategically cutting deficits were exceedingly well-explained, on both principled and practical grounds. He made it clear that he was, first and foremost, a proven problem-solver who cares about the plight of jobless Americans, and who understands the urgency of the crises the unemployed are faced with. Most important, Romney appeared pragmatic in tone (appealing to undecided voters) and incisively robust in argument (persuading undecided voters). He expressed himself in an organized and clever manner. His “zingers” were well delivered, refreshingly amusing and to the point.

Chris Christie was right: Romney has turned this campaign on its head. The momentum has shifted.

Ezra:

A pitiful effort by Obama, showing how very little “hope” he now has left in himself and his own ideas. For a full-term president, he was remarkably incapable and unwilling to talk about his cumulative American philosophy in terms other than minor policy details. My interpretation: Obama is so tired of his personal failure to achieve his agenda, and make it popular, that he has all but given up. It is now mentally exhausting for him to craft on-the-fly his populist façade—a guise for his actual anti-Constitutional, anti-American agenda—because every lie reminds him how ineffective he has been. Obamacare, the pinnacle of his attempt to bolster federal power at the expense of state, personal, and free market rights, is unpopular and bound for repeal. Instead of falling in love with the entitlement state, the American people have renewed faith in Constitutional principles. If you were Obama, how would you feel? Most people would quit while they’re ahead…instead, Obama chose to run again, gambling his life away. In a second Obama term, what are the chances of a major scandal, a terrible war, further economic stagnation? Very high. On the other hand, what are the chances of a national Democratic rally, bipartisan breakthrough, a reduction in the national debt? Very low. Would you subject your legacy to these chances? Ugh…I’d be just as nervous and dispassionate as Obama.

Mike Navarro:

Mitt Romney finally delivered what Republicans have been asking for. He took a stand, stood his ground, and went on the attack while Barack Obama appeared to be irritated and on the defensive. When it comes down to it Mitt Romney appeared presidential, while Obama looked out of his league. The body language spoke volumes alone: Barack Obama looked everywhere in the room except at his opponent, while Mitt Romney stared down Obama as if he were prey. Again, this is exactly what Republicans have been waiting for. Simply dominating.

Noah Kantro:

If on January 20^th, 2013, we are celebrating the inauguration of President Romney, last night’s debate will be looked back upon as the turning point in the race. If this campaign has been a boxing match, the champ just got knocked down in the 8^th round. He had been fighting strong in the previous rounds this summer, with more ad spending and media caterwauling, but he underestimated the challenger. Obama had been counting on the bout being fixed. The judges (the media) all have bets placed on his victory. So does the referee (Lehrer). So do the 47%. But you can’t fix a knockout – and that is what Romney delivered last night. While Obama is not down for the count yet, and there are still plenty of rounds left, the momentum has shifted, the judges are slack-jawed, and the public has in their mind the image of a new champion hoisting the belt when this is over. I expect to see the first polls with Romney on top in the next several days.