Video: 'Obama vs. Romney: The first 2012 presidential debate'

(Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. MDT; during the 2012 United States presidential election campaign) — Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney tonight accused U.S. President Barack Obama of failing to lead the country out of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, using the first presidential debate of the 2012 general election campaign to invigorate his candidacy by presenting himself as an equal who can solve problems Obama has been unable to.

The President implored Americans to be patient and argued that his policies needed more time to work, warning that changing course would wipe away the economic progress the country is steadily making. The two quarreled aggressively over tax policy, the budget deficit, and the role of government, with each man accusing the other of being evasive and misleading voters.

But for all of the anticipation, and with less than five weeks remaining until Election Day, the 90-minute debate unfolded much like a seminar by a business consultant and a college professor. Both men argued that their policies would improve the lives of the middle class, but their discussion often dipped deep into the weeds, and they talked over each other without connecting their ideas to voters.

If Romney’s goal was to show that he could project equal stature to the president, he succeeded, perhaps offering his campaign the lift that Republicans have been seeking. Obama often stopped short of challenging his rival’s specific policies and chose not to invoke some of the same arguments that his campaign has been making against Romney for months.

At one point, Romney offered an admonishment, saying, “Mr. President, you’re entitled, as the president, to your own airplane and to your own house, but not to your own facts, all right?” He forcefully engaged Obama throughout the night, while the president often looked down at his lectern and took notes.

A boisterous campaign, which has played out through dueling rallies and an endless stream of television commercials, took a sober turn as the candidates stood facing lecterns for the first time. Obama, who has appeared to take command of the race in most battleground states, seemed to adopt an air of caution throughout the evening that left some of his liberal supporters disappointed in his performance.

“Are we going to double down on the top-down economic policies that helped to get us into this mess,” he said, “or do we embrace a new economic patriotism that says, ‘America does best when the middle class does best’?”

For much of the debate, the candidates commandeered the stage, taking control away from the moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, as they kept trying to rebut one other. At times, the moderator seemed as if he had walked off the stage, a result of new rules that were intended to allow for a deeper and more freewheeling discussion.

On a basic level, it was a clash of two ideologies, the president’s Democratic vision of government playing a supporting role in spurring economic growth, and Romney’s Republican vision that government should get out of the way of businesses that know best how to create jobs.

Romney sought to use his moment before a prime-time audience of tens of millions to escape the corner Obama and his allies have painted him into, depicting him as an uncompromising adherent to policies that have been tried before. He instead turned the focus on his opponent’s record.

“You’ve been president four years. You’ve been president four years,” Romney said at one point. He ticked through a list of promises he said Obama had not lived up to, and said, “Middle-income families are being crushed.”

Neither candidate delivered that knockout blow or devastating line that each side was hoping for. Still, style points went to Romney, who continually and methodically pressed his critique of Obama. The president at times acted more as if he were addressing reporters in the Rose Garden than beating back a challenger intent on taking his job.