The three presidential debates during this 2012 election were in the very least, good television. It is clear that these presidential debates do not accomplish much, but it is also clear that they can play a factor into the poll numbers. The debate at the University of Denver on domestic policy and the town meeting formatted debate at Hofstra University had similarities and vast differences and both certainly played a factor in the polls. In the world of politics, domestic policy can be defined as the most important issues to a nation, and the debate that the incumbent president must win. The debate was split into several 15 minute segments to discuss specific issues and by the second segment it became rather difficult to merely pay attention to what the President was saying. Having strong facts and evidence comes second to eloquence and style in these debates. President Obama was very withdrawn and lacked confidence as he was speaking the whole night. The President lacked eye contact with both the audience and Governor Mitt Romney as the governor spoke and would instead look down at the podium. From purely auditory and visual perspectives, Romney was bold and confident while Obama was weak and awkward. The moderator of this debate, Jim Lehrer, for the most part made sure to stay unbiased. Lehrer, however, did a rather poor job of managing the time allotted for both candidates to speak. In fact, there were times during the night in which we might as well have not had a moderator. Also, the candidates often skipped around the questions which were asked. For example when Lehrer asked Obama to, “respond directly to what the governor just said about your trickle-down approach”, after Romney stated Obama allows too big a government and follows this approach, Obama answered by stating, “Well, let me talk about what I think we need to do. First we’ve got to improve our education system....”. This is just typical politics coming into play as candidates dance around their questions. One thing that was noticeable in both these debates is that much of what Romney said was leaning very left and often times, Romney and Obama were stating almost identical points. Governor Romney stated the importance of using other energy sources, funding education and providing several tax cuts for the middle class, all ideas that Obama supports very much. When reading the transcripts, there is no clear winner in this debate, for one, not much substance is said to begin with, but when you are one of the 60 million people who watched the debate live, it was clear that Mitt Romney overpowered the President and won this debate. In the next few days, polls for Romney skyrocketed and gave him all the momentum heading into the next few debates and election day. Very rarely do presidential debates have as much influence on the polls as Romneys performance did after this Denver debate. After his miserable performance during the debate in Denver, it was expected that the President would come out swinging during the town-hall style debate in New York. This debate was very fun to watch as the two candidates could freely walk around, approaching audience members and sometimes confronting each other or the moderator, Candy Crowley. Crowley, was much more assertive and better at clock management with the candidates speaking time then Lehrer was, but her bias leaked out during one instance. Romney was arguing that Obama never stated that the attacks in Bengazi were terrorist attacks until 14 days later. However, Crowley revealed that the President “did in fact, sir. So let me -- let me call it an act of terror...” one day after the attacks in the rose garden. The crowd began cheering here and Crowley clearly saw her moment of bias as she quickly tried to reiterate Romney’s point that the Obama administration did take 14 days to officially call the attacks, acts of terror. This was certainly a moment Candy is very proud of. Or perhaps she is proud of it, but regardless her bias was shown. Throughout the night, Obama was quick to respond, confident, witty and for the lack of a better word, the President certainly had “swag”. Although the former governor was also very confident and assertive as he challenged the President to his face, once asking, “have you looked at your pension?”, Obama cooly replied, “I don’t look at my pension, it’s not as big as yours”. This debate was much more evenly contested than the first debate, but with Romney having the momentum from the last debate, and firmly standing his ground in this one, the polls did not change much as a result. Candidates always begin the debates with an informal greeting, as they give their gratitudes to just about everyone in the world. To me, this symbolizes the true nonsense that these candidates are saying and the dancing around questions. The candidates have already been introduced, so there is no need to waste 30 seconds thanking everyone during your first question. Throughout these debates the two candidates also have several go-to methods. Mitt Romney seems to have countless examples of how individuals have come up to him, grabbed his arm and personally asked if he could help them. The President must bring up his family at least once when on television and he also uses humor to sometimes avoid a question or enhance his argument. It is clear that these presidential debates do have some influence in the election, and it really is all about the candidates performance and presentation and not as much about what they say.