Editorial: Romney wins on style, Obama on facts [View all]

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http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/15535810-474/editorial-romney-wins-on-style-obama-on-facts.html

If you score Wednesday’s debate largely on the basis of which candidate for president exuded a rambunctious energy, it was Gov. Romney all the way.

(snip)
If, however, you score Wednesday’s debate on substance — accurate facts and honest arithmetic — Obama more than held his own. He drove home the false promises and dangerous ramifications of Romney’s proposed tax cuts, which would surely raise taxes for the middle class by eliminating breaks, such as the home mortgage deduction, and require the elimination of essential programs, such as student loan subsidies.

“I believe Gov. Romney genuinely cares about education,” Obama said. “But when he says [students] should borrow from their parents to go, many . . . just don’t have that option.”

The president was especially strong in picking apart Romney’s ill-conceived plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program, which independent analysts say would leave elderly Americans down the road at the mercy of private insurance companies. Maybe those vouchers would cover the bill, but quite likely they would not over time, even as traditional fee-for-service Medicare would wither away.