Disagreements over raising taxes on the wealthy and Medicare highlighted the first presidential debate between President Barack Obama, the democratic nominee, and Governor Mitt Romney, the republican nominee for president.

The debate, which took place Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. was hosted on campus and moderated by PBS’s Jim Lehrer, had over 67 million viewers and was covered by 47 countries.

With the world watching, Romney took advantage of low expectations and a president who seemed disengaged with the debate according to Romney adviser John Sununu.

“The president has a very similar view he had when he ran four years ago, that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more – if you will, trickle-down government – would work,” said Romney during the debate. “That’s not the right answer for America. I’ll restore the vitality that gets America working again.”

Obama disagreed with Romney, though not attacking him directly.

“Let me talk specifically about what I think we need to do,” said Obama in response. He continued to layout his vision to keep tuition low and hire 100,000 new math and science teachers. Obama argued that Romney’s $5 trillion tax-cut would hurt government programs, specifically ones that would hire more teachers.

Romney, bothered by the president’s comments on his tax plan, spoke over Lehrer.

“There’s no economist that can say Mitt Romney’s tax plan adds $5 trillion if I say I will not add to the deficit with my tax plan,” said Romney.

The debate continued with Obama repeatedly mentioning Romney’s $5 trillion tax cut with Romney denying it at every point.

“And the fact is that if you are lowering the rates the way you described, Governor, then it is not possible to come up with enough deductions and loopholes that only affect high-income individuals,” said Obama. “It’s arithmetic.”

The beginning segment on the economy was originally set to last 15-minutes but ended up taking 26-minutes after Leher struggled to moderate both candidates.

The new debate format, agreed to by both campaigns and the moderator, featured six 15-minute conversations, each starting with a question and two-minute answers from each candidate.

The second segment featured questions about the federal deficit.

“I think it’s not just an economic issue, I think it’s a moral issue,” said Romney starting off the segment. “I think it’s, frankly, not moral for my generation to keep spending massively more than we take in, knowing those burdens are going to be passed on to the next generation.”

Romney continued by blaming president Obama for the deficit.

“The president said he’d cut the deficit in half. Unfortunately, he doubled it.”

That statement, that Obama has doubled the national debt, has been considered false by the Denver Post,  the NY Daily News and factcheck.org.

Obama overlooked the misstatement by Romney and stayed to his talking points.

“The way we [cut the deficit] is: $2.50 for every cut, we ask for $1 of additional revenue, paid for by asking those of us who have done very well in this country to contribute a little bit more to reduce the deficit,” said Obama.

Romney quickly pounced on the statement.

“You’ve been president four years. You said you’d cut the deficit in half. It’s now four years later. We still have trillion-dollar deficits,” said Romney.

The third segment was on entitlements and begun with Obama saying that he and Romney had similar positions on Social Security. The entitlement portion quickly moved into a debate about Medicare.

“The idea of cutting $716 billion from Medicare to be able to balance the additional cost of Obamacare is, in my opinion, a mistake,” said Romney.

Obama then attacked Romney on his plan to for Medicare.

“And the essence of [Romney’s] plan is that you would turn Medicare into a voucher program,” said Obama. “If you’re 54 or 55, you might want to listen ‘cause this – this will affect you.”

When Lehrer asked Romney if he supported a voucher system, Romney said that it would be “step one” to entitlement reform.

“If the government can be as efficient as the private sector and offer premiums that are as low as the private sector, people will be happy to get traditional Medicare or they’ll be able to get a private plan,” said Romney.

“And when you move to a voucher system, you are putting seniors at the mercy of those insurance companies,” said Obama, trying to end the segment.

Romney, Obama and Leher spoke over each other to end the segment with both sides agreeing there is a clear choice between both candidates on the issue of Medicare.

The next segments were on regulation. Romney said he would repeal Dodd-Frank, a bank regulation bill passed after the 2008 financial crisis saying that it was “it wasn’t thought through properly.”

Romney then attacked the president on “Obamacare.”

[pullquote_right]“There was a survey done of small businesses across the country, said, what’s been the effect of Obamacare on your hiring plans? And three-quarters of them said it makes us less likely to hire people,” said Romney.[/pullquote_right]

“There was a survey done of small businesses across the country, said, what’s been the effect of Obamacare on your hiring plans? And three-quarters of them said it makes us less likely to hire people,” said Romney.[

Obama alluded to the healthcare law that Romney passed in Massachusetts in response.

“The irony is that we’ve seen this model works really well in Massachusetts, because Governor Romney did a good thing, working with Democrats in the state to set up what is essentially the identical model and as a consequence people are covered there,” said Obama, “it hasn’t destroyed jobs.”

The last segment was on the role of the government itself, specifically in education.

“So all federal funds, instead of going to the state or to the school district, I’d have go, if you will, follow the child and let the parent and the child decide,” said Romney.

Obama appealed to his record to defend his view of the role of the federal government in education.
“Through our Race to the Top program, we’ve worked with Republican and Democratic governors to initiate major reforms, ” said Obama. “When it comes to making college affordable one of the things that I did as president was we [cut] $60 billion to banks and lenders as middlemen for the student loan program.”

The segment ended early because of time constraints.

President Barack Obama was selected to be the first to make his final statement.

“I also promised that 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,” said Obama. “I’ve kept that promise and if you’ll vote for me, then I promise I’ll fight just as hard in a second term.”

[pullquote_left]“I also promised that 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,” said Obama. “I’ve kept that promise and if you’ll vote for me, then I promise I’ll fight just as hard in a second term.”[/pullquote_left]

Governor Mitt Romney made the final statement and attacked on the high and persistent unemployment rate under the Obama presidency.

“We’ve had 43 straight months with unemployment above 8 percent,” said Romney. “If I’m president I will create help create 12 million new jobs in this country.”

After the debate both the Romney and Obama team claimed victory.

“The President was befuddled tonight,” said former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani in support of Romney. “This was as big of a presidential debate knockout that we’ve ever seen.”

The Obama camp was quick to respond to accusations of losing the debate, accusing Romney of being “testy.”

“We didn’t have a lot of zingers…[Obama] just laid out his vision,” said senior adviser to the Obama Campaign, David Plouffe. “I don’t think [Romney] had a good night.”

Most debate pundits and the blogosphere believed that Romney won the debate. Instant polling done by CNN showed that Romney won by 67 percent to 25 percent.
Candy Crowley will host the next presidential debate on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at Hofstra University. The debate will feature a town-meeting style.