US election - presidential debate as it happened - Telegraph 05.20 (00.20) Rachel Ray in our Washington bureau says Jim Lehrer proved to be an admirable choice as debate moderator in her review of the presidential showdown. In a nation of over 300 million residents that spans a continent, the going can get tough to gather folks together in a collective family room. But the moderator of the first of three presidential debates, veteran newsman Jim Lehrer of PBS - who has presided over more US presidential debates than any news anchor - did an admirable job on Wednesday night of making it a real choice for voters. 04.50 (23.50) The snap post-debate poll from CNN/ORC is decisive and will make for very unhappy reading in Chicago. Voters felt Romney won by a margin of almost 3-1. When asked, based on the debate, who would be a stronger leader they broke for Romney 58-37. 04.40 (23.40) From the economics point of view Richard Blackden calls it for Romney. Romney won the debate because he knitted together a political philosophy and specific economic policies far better than Obama. Whether it was on the role of government or how to create jobs for small businesses, Romney was clearer and more articulate. The debate offered little new in the way of specific policies beyond the aspirations both candidates have already laid out. We still don't, for example, know how Obama plans to create 1m more manufacturing jobs. Or how Romney will cut taxes without deepening the deficit. If tonight's performance does reignite Romney's stuttering bid for the White House, he can expect far more detailed questions about how he will create 12m jobs, close tax loopholes and deductions and regulate Wall Street. Obama urgently needs to do what Romney did tonight - knit together and articulate a political philosophy with an economic plan for strengthening the US recovery. This is not an election in which you can separate the politics from the economics. 04.25 (23.35) A lot of happy tweets coming from Team Romney, including this picture from DG Jackson, Romney's personal aide, with the caption "So proud to work for MItt Romney." 04.15 (23.15) Van Jones, one of Obama's former advisers, says that Obama looked like he "didn't expect Romney to bring the heat tonight." But it's beyond that: Obama looked like he didn't want to fight. Here are a couple of the things he didn't say: 1) He never brought up Romney's 47 per cent remarks, something he has happily and often referred to on the campaign trail. The comments were so damaging and screaming to be revived. Did Obama feel it would be un-presidential to bring them up with his opponent standing right there? 2) For the first time in years, we saw Romney trying to reclaim the benefits of being Governor of Massachusetts, one of the country's most successful states. But there are ways Obama could could have used it against him - especially mentioning that at the end of Romney's term Massachusetts was 47th in terms of job creation. 3) Jim Lehrer never guided the debate towards social issues but nor did Obama try to steer the conversation that way. On stage and in his ads, the Democrat constantly attacks Romney over abortion rights. Why didn't he find a way to bring that up? Chris Matthews, the liberal MSNBC host, got extremely upset with Obama's performance. 04.00 (23.00) Peter Foster observes jubilant Republicans in the spin room: The spinners are now hard at work. Republicans are definitely the more upbeat in the room here. Eric Fehrnstrom, the top Romney adviser, says Obama must have 'worn out the heels on his shoes" he was on the backfoot so often tonight. Marco Rubio said Obama had "utterly failed to lay out a clear vision for America." The media twittersphere snap verdict would seem to agree with that, but for the Democrats Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said what some call a 'commanding' performance by Romney would be seen by viewers at home as "testy" and "aggressive." He admitted that Romney - as he'd predicted - had "won on style points" but claimed he had lost badly on the substance of his tax plan, on voucherising medicare. 03.55 (22.55) In the spin room Stephanie Cutter, Obama's deputy campaign manager, concedes that Romney was the better performer on stage tonight: Mitt Romney absolutely wins the preparation and he wins the style points but that's not what's been dogging his campaign. What's been dogging his campaign are the policies that he doubled down on tonight. Let's talk about his tax cut: they signaled over the last several days they would put out details of how they would pay for it. They didn't put out details, in fact he backed away from it. He's not being honest with the American people. She also does what losing campaigns do: blame the moderator. I sometimes wondered if we even needed a moderator because we had Mitt Romney. I think it's fair to criticise Lehrer, who didn't really seem in control of the debate at all, but in fact it was Obama who got far more speaking time. 03.45 (22.45) From the ground in Denver, Peter Foster call its for the Republican challenger. I'm scoring this as an absolutely clear win for Mitt Romney. At times tonight it seemed as if President Obama didn't think he needed to fight. He was slow out of the blocks and then spent large parts of his answers getting lost in the weeds of policy. Mr Romney could also be fairly blamed for his less than scintillating moments, but he also had moments of real passion - on education, on the importance of free enterprise even while doing a significant amount to undo three months of ferocious Democrat messaging that he's a heartless plutocrat. 03.35 (22.35) There's a consensus on Twitter, and it chimes with this some Larry Sabato, a well-respected politics professor at the University of Virginia: 03.34 (22.34) Romney says: "This is an important election and I'm concerned about America. I know this is bigger than one election about or about the two of us" that he has no doubt that if President Obama is re-elected the middle class will continue to be squeezed. Romney hangs around on stage with his family as it comes to an end accepting a round of applause from his supporters. Obama leaves much quicker. 03.30 (22.30) We're on to closing statements now and Obama leads the way. He says he takes inspiration from the American people, who are the strongest and most resilient in the world. The question now is how do we build on those successes? He says "fights every day on behalf of the American people and the middle class" and if he is re-elected he will continue to do so and ensure that "everyone has a fair shot." 03.26 (22.26) Romney has probably mentioned Massachusetts more times in this last debate than he has in the entire campaign - taking credit for its good schools, defending Romneycare and using it as a model for bipartisanship. Bear in mind this is a place he once described as almost being "the Las Vegas of gay marriage" like it was some sort of liberal Sodom and Gomorrah. 03.25 (22.25) Obama raises one of Romney's more serious gaffes, telling students that they should borrow from their parents in order to go to university, but interestingly has yet to say anything about Mitt's infamous 47 per cent comment. 03.20 (22.20) The President looks more comfortable talking about the role of government. The federal government has the capacity to create ladders of opportunity and the frameworks in which people can succeed. Romney's description is more colourful - pointing to the text of the Constitution on the wall behind him - and more vague. He says government must maintain the strength of the military and protect the people's freedom. He advocates a more liberalised model for education funding, with parents having more choice about where children go to school and the federal money "following the child." 03.19 (22.19) Peter Foster is unimpressed with the healthcare debate: The healthcare segment is tough to score. At several points you started to wish that both candidates had done less prepping and swotting and more time thinking about how to persuade the audience of the merits of their case. Perhaps Mr Obama won it very marginally on points, mocking Mr Romney for his continued failure to provide details of his plans. Is it "because they're too good?" he asked, scornfully. But honestly, both candidates deserve a beta double minus. 03.18 (22.18) Obama really does not look comfortable on stage. He spends most of his time looking down and occasionally grinning at the moderator awkwardly at the moderator. Romney looks far more engaged - occasionally shoving Lehrer aside and constantly looking at his opponent. 03.15 (22.15) Richard Blackden has been reviewing the exchange on financial reform: Romney's attack on the 'too big to fail' section of Dodd Frank is one many would agree with. Few believe that the major piece of financial reform has properly tackled the vexed question of whether the biggest banks are just too big. In other words, if they fail, it will leave the government with no choice but to bail them out. Indeed, critics to the left of Obama believe he should have broken up the banks in early 2009 when many needed taxpayers' money to survive. As with much of this debate, though, Obama was left on the backfoot. Obama should have pressed Romney on what his solution to the 'too big to fail question is'. It is not clear, from his policy statements, that he has one. 03.10 (22.10) Obama rightly says that Romney would "repeal and replace" Obamacare but has provided not details of what would take its place. 03.00 (22.00) Romney doing a much better job making this debate about real people, constantly mentioning unnamed Americans in towns from different swing states who are suffering under Obama's policies. As the President mounts a defence of healthcare reforms he says: "the irony is we've seen this model work well... in Massachusetts!" He says Romney did a "good thing" by working with both Democrats and Republicans. And in doing so he walks right into Romney's trap. The former Massachusetts governor says his plan passed with support from both sides of the aisle whereas Obama "pushed through a plan without a single Republican vote" and on "an entirely partisan basis." 02.55 (22.55) Jon Swaine's section three verdict: draw We just saw an invigoratingly substantive debate on entitlements between Mr Obama and Mr Romney. They both laid out their views on reforming Medicare eloquently, with Mr Romney going some way to defusing the danger brought to his ticket by Paul Ryan, who wants it privatised. Yet Mr Obama struck back well by repeating the tale he told at the Democratic convention about his grandmother, who depended on entitlements in her later years. He also hit Mr Romney for his desire to repeal the Dodd-Frank regulations. "Does anybody out there think that the big problem we had was too much oversight and regulation of Wall Street?" he asked, looking right down the camera. Because if you do, then Governor Romney is your candidate. But that's not what I believe. However Mr Romney was solid throughout, steamrollering moderator Jim Lehrer when asked to stop talking and getting his points across well. 02.50 (21.50) Obama links Romney to the Ryan plan for Medicare which so frightens older people, saying it would put "seniors at the mercy of those insurance companies." He cites the AARP, the lobby for pensioners, which says Romney's plan would weaken care for older people. We're now onto financial reform, with Romney saying he would repeal and replace the sprawling Dodd-Frank financial reform act. Does anybody out there think that the problem was there was too much oversight and regulation? If so, then Governor Romney's plan is for you. Romney says that two years after Dodd-Frank there's still no clarity on mortgage regulation and too many banks are still too big to fail. 02.45 (21.45) Jon Swaine gives his first half verdict: Mitt Romney came out of the traps full of energy and with real-life examples at his fingertips. His recollection of an encounter in Dayton, Ohio - "A woman grabbed my arm and said 'I've been out of work since May. Can you help me?" - was powerful. He relentlessly hammered the fact that he would not, in fact, raise taxes on middle-income families. The specifics are still not there, but it's a promise and it will have surprised many viewers who hold a different view of the former Massachusetts governor. By contrast, Barack Obama started slowly, his mouth dry and his tendency to waffle instantly evident. The President warmed up by the end, dinging Mr Romney sharply for his alliance with Donald Trump and slipping in a reference to Bill Clinton's record. However - and perhaps partly due to his lower expectations - first blood was to Mr Romney. From the business perspective, our US Business Editor Richard Blackden largely agrees: Whatever you think of the policies, Romney has knit together debt, tax policy and job creation far more clearly than Obama has in the opening 20 minutes of the debate. Obama so far offering little in the way of detail when it comes to taxes, job creation or providing any sort of defence of the last four years. It is little surprise that both are trumpeting what they will do for small businesses - they account for about 40pc of US gross domestic product. Obama needs to do a much better job of linking his policies on school and education to economic growth. 02.40 (21.40) Obama on slightly sturdier ground saying that Romney's plan of cuts would cause "severe hardship for people but more importantly wont' help us grow." But within seconds Romney is back at him with two good lines: telling him he "picks losers" with his government intervention and that he is creating a political fantasy by describing how companies can get tax cuts for moving factories overseas. 02.35 (21.35) Romney is losing his voice a little bit but he's animated as tells the President he should have "grabbed" the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles plan for reducing the deficit and taken it to Congress. "You're killing jobs," he tells Obama, citing the administration's plan to raise some new taxes. Romney has seized the opportunity to be on a level stage with the world's most powerful man. He looks the more lively, the more aggressive and the more commanding. 02.33 (21.33) We've moved on to the second segment, a discussion of how to close the deficit. Romney says the deficit "isn't just an economic - issue it's a moral issue." First on his list of programmes he would cut is Obamacare, before turning to the President and saying "I use that term with all respect." Obama grins: "I like it." Obama says he has cut 77 programmes from education and the military and "very aggressively" cut fraud and waste out of the sprawling Medicare and Medicaid programmes. He says he would take a "balanced approach to cutting the deficit - a combination of cuts and new revenues - while Romney would "gut" crucial programmes. 02.25 (21.25) They say that debates are won in the first half-hour. We're 25 minutes in and Romney has indisputably had the better part of it. Obama says that Romney's policies have been tried during George W Bush's two terms and ended in disaster, while his policies worked under Bill Clinton. There's something to the argument but it looks like he wants to carp on about the past and not the future. 02.24 (21.24) Romney doggedly insists that Obama is misrepresenting his tax plan, claiming that it would shift the tax burden onto the middle class or else blow open the deficit. 02.20 (21.20) Obama seems to be in professor mode, saying that discussion of taxes is "instructive" and telling the moderator "I'm going to make an important here." Romney is talking to Obama, the President is talking to the moderator. 02.15 (21.15) Romney disputes that he's out to cut taxes for the wealthy in the first direct exchange between the two men. He says high income people are "doing just fine" and will "whether your president or I am." He says he's out for the middle class and will not increase their proportion of the tax burden. He also makes his first (probably of many) reference to Biden's "buried gaffe." Obama spends most of his time looking away, jotting notes with a hint of a smile on his face. Romney is also taking notes but he spends more time looking at Obama. 02.10 (21.10) Wow, Romney has made a very strong start. His joke is funnier than Obama's - saying he's sure the President would rather be somewhere more romantic than on stage with him. He tells two little anecdotes about unnamed struggling Americans approaching him and Ann at rallies and asking: can you help us? The answer is yes, we can help but it's going to take a different path. Obama looks less comfortable on stage than Romney, which is not what I would have predicted. 02.01 (21.02) And both men are on stage. They smile broadly as they shake hands, each resting their hand on the other's right arm. Both look breezy and it's fascinating to see them next to one another for the first time. Obama begins by saying the most important thing he has to say is that "20 years ago I became the luckiest man on earth because Michelle Obama agreed to marry me." He jokes, a little flatly, that next year they won't celebrate in front of 40 million viewers. He goes on to say that "this is not where we have been but where we're going" i.e. let's talk about the next term not the one that has just passed. 02.00 (21.00) Here we go: Obama will take the first question and Romney will give the final closing statement. 01.57 (20.57) Three minutes to go. Get excited, Ezra Klein is. 01.55 (20.55) Ann Romney and Michelle Obama just shared a very brief embrace inside the debate hall. Michelle is dressed in blue and sitting next to Valerie Jarrett, the Obamas' long-time Chicago confidant and adviser. Marty Nesbitt, another old friend from the Windy City, is there too. No sign of the Obama daughters. Ann is in white and sitting between Tagg Romney and one of the grandkids. The First Lady looks very animated smiling and laughing with those around her, while Mrs Romney looks more nervous and is taking a lot of deep breaths. 01.50 (20.50) Meanwhile the Commander-in-Chief got a mixed reception on his way into the university. Per the pool report: The president is in the house after arriving at the debate venue the Ritchie Center, the home of the University of Denver hockey team,at 6.24 pm. Crowds backing both men were outside. The president passed a lot of Romney Ryan signs on the grass verges outside. A crowd of Romney backers held signs saying "Fire Obama" On the other side of the road was a crowd holding two large "Forward" signs. A squadron of dump trucks with snow plows on the front was seen heading out apparently to grit the roads, with snow in the forecast. 01.45 (20.45) The Romney clan looks relaxed backstage. 01.43 (20.43) Charles Whitfield has a little more detail about the nuts and bolts of tonight's debate: Debates in recent years have taken a very structured approach. Candidates have had set amounts of time - usually less than two minutes - to answer specific questions or respond to opponents statements. Speaking too long risked interruption by bells or buzzers meant to keep time. Tonight's format will be much more free form. The debate will be divided into 15-minute segments on domestic issues, but beyond that, there is no set format for questions, answers, or rebuttals. It will be up to veteran moderator Jim Lehrer to guide the discussion. 01.40 (20.40) It happens to be the Obamas' 20th wedding anniversary today. Could they have imagined in 1992 that they would spend their 20th in a presidential debate? The campaign has put out this video to mark it. 01.30 (20.30) Peter Foster files this tidbit from inside the debate zone. Just been chatting in spin alley. The pre-debate word from the Romney camp is to expect no new policy announcements in this debate. No surprises or last-minute unveiling of a policy that might wrongfoot Obama. Even the prospect of much-awaited Romney "zingers" is now being down-played. Do you think? Or is this just the latest head-feint in the games of kidology that always precedes these occasions? Perhaps this is part of a cunning plan to lure Mr Obama into a false sense of security and Mr Romney really plans to come out swinging tonight. Hit his opponent hard and fast and try to seize the initiative - just as he did in the crunch primary debates against Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. For my money, Mitt needs to come out fast tonight. Half an hour now until we find out. 01.25 (20.25) Pretty amazing almost statistic. We have created a Twitter monster. 01.10 (20.10) Obama is rolling for the debate site. Under darkening skies and in a gusty wind, President Obama's motorcade pulled out of his hotel at 6.00 pm headed to the University of Denver. The pool heard cheers and chants of "four more years" from a good size crowd opposite the hotel, but didn't see the president climb aboard his car. Before he left, David Axelrod [senior adviser], Jon Favreau [speech writer] and Gene Sperling [economic adviser], clutching a Starbucks cup and Brian Deese chatted to each other and others outside the staff buses. Regretably, I have no information about what he ate for dinner. 00.55 (19.55) Which is not to say that Obama is not capable of his own peevishness. Hillary Clinton had a relatively rare "human moment" ahead of the 2008 New Hampshire primary giving a endearing answer to a question about whether she voters liked her as a person. Obama, clearly annoyed with his primary opponent, mumbled into his notepad: "You're likeable enough, Hillary." It's been made pretty clear that Obama doesn't think much of Romney and he'll have to be careful about letting that dislike shine through. Obama also likes listening to Obama. Here he is, again in the 2008 Democratic primary, on a little riff about why words matter and why his candidacy matters and he eventually gets to the conclusion that his speeches are "pretty good." It's worth noting that Obama was much, much better against John McCain than he ever was against Hillary Clinton. That may be that he became more mature as a candidate but it's also partly because there were genuine differences with McCain whereas with Clinton they were always scrapping around the margins. 00.27 (19.27) Let's talk pitfalls. Both men on stage tonight are highly disciplined and seasoned debaters so it's relatively unlikely either of them are going to say anything campaign-endingly stupid. But both have shown real moments of weakness during debates in the past. For Romney it's a tendency towards defensive that can teeters over the line into peevishness and sneering. Romney became incensed when Rick Perry repeatedly goaded him about healthcare during a Republican primary debate. His irritation grew to the point that he stuck out his hand and offered the Texan a $10,000 bet. In his mind it must have seemed snappy and daring. But to an audience already being told that the former executive is an out of touch rich guy, it reinforced the worst possible stereotypes. At other times, he can just be plain awkward. Here he is being asked a serious question about whether he would release his tax returns. He smirks throughout and glibly replies: "Maybe." The Republican crowd boos in response. 00.27 (19.27) From the ground in Denver, Jon Swaine explains why the end of the debate is only the beginning of the argument. Florida Senator Marco Rubio in "spin alley" Having watched the two presidential hopefuls thrash out their policy differences onstage for 90 intense minutes, the several thousand journalists gathered here in Denver this evening might be expected to have a good idea of which man won, and why. Almost as soon as the candidates step off stage, however, teams of their advisers and congressional allies will swarm into an area beside the press seats known, embarrassingly enough, as "spin alley." Wandering down this alley, these campaign "surrogates" will "spin" the performance of their man, telling any journalist able to shove a dictaphone under their chin why their side won. Sometimes it is so obvious who had the better night that no amount of spinning can save the losing candidate. Frequently during the Republican presidential primaries, candidates such as Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich bounded into the spin room themselves - more often than not an indication that they had some explaining to do. But occasionally this propaganda onslaught can have an impact. The first debate in 2000 between George W. Bush and Al Gore was widely judged to have been close. Yet Mr Bush's team relentlessly focused on the fact that Mr Gore had audibly sighed at several points, suggesting that he had lost his cool. The detail was quickly disseminated through the cable news broadcasts and before Mr Gore's team had their boots on, their man was judged to have lost. Top strategists for both campaigns are expected tonight. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the Democratic party chairman, is already wandering around and The Daily Telegraph passed Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, a close Romney ally, on the way in. Eric Fehrnstrom, Mr Romney's press chief, has even started huddling with journalists already. Pre-spin is the new spin. 00.15 (19.15) Team Romney is merrily tweeting out a stream of pictures showing how relaxed "the Gov" is ahead of the debate. He's hanging out with his grandkids, watching some TV and eating a BBQ sandwich and spaghetti from the Cheesecake factory. Looks a bit ahead of a debate where you need your wits about you but hey ho. Of the five sons Tagg, Craig, Matt and Josh are with him tonight. Mia Romney and her "Poppa" Debate fuel 00.05 (19.05) Both campaigns will be on full throttle after the debates, spinning that their man won and then dispatching the candidates to the swing states to try to seize the momentum. Obama will be keeping it local on Thursday, holding an early rally in Colorado. That gives him the advantage of having the first say after the debate (assuming neither of them do post-match interviews, which would be very unusual). The President then moves on to Wisconsin, Paul Ryan's home state, where is looking to solidify his eight-point lead. There's no let up on Friday as he heads first to Virginia and then to Ohio. Romney makes Virginia his first stop on Thursday, doing a joint evening rally with his running mate who he seems to energise the former businessman on stage. On Friday, he's off to Florida. We reported earlier that he seems to be closing the gap in both states and is now in a statistical tie with the President, according to the latest NBC/Wall St Journal poll. 23.15 (18.15) This is what happens when candidates don't get enough sleep (actually it's what happens when Obama's teleprompter malfunctions). 22.52 (17.52) Truly bizarre snippet from Buzzfeed ahead of the debate: But Romney got virtually no sleep Monday night, an aide said, blaming a freight train that passed through a grade crossing near the hotel and blew its horn roughly every hour all through the night. The candidate's sleep deprivation so worried his staff that the campaign looked into switching hotels. The logistics were ultimately too tough, the aide said, and there was concern about how it would look. Somehow, I don't think marching into the spin room and blaming noisy trains for a poor performance is going to work. 22.45 (17.45) One of Romney's most loyal surrogates, Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz, was just on TV and was asked about the 2007 video that Drudge hyped last night. The Romney campaign has not commented on it and Chaffetz also brushed it off, saying Romney was going to talk about the economy. Interesting to see the gulf between what some conservatives want to discuss and what the Republican leadership is prepared to talk about. 22.30 (17.30) I've just been watching an interesting clip of Romney debating Shannon O'Brien during the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election - the last time Romney had a one-on-one debate with a Democrat. He's the dominant voice in the debate, making his point on abortion again and again. But there's also hints of his weaknesses here: at the end he becomes clearly irritated and says O'Brien's style is "unbecoming," a comment that angered many women's groups. 22.18 (17.18) Obama may be in Denver but the White House continues to monitor the unsettling situation on the Turkish-Syrian border and has put out a statement condemning the deaths of Turkish civilians and vowing: "We stand with our Turkish allies." 21.52 (16.52) One of Klain's rules is go scope out the debate site ahead of time. Obama's in the process of doing that - here's his limousine at the University of Denver. 21.45 (16.45) Ron Klain, has been at the peak of Democratic politics for 20 years, serving as chief of staff to Al Gore when he was Vice President and as an all around fixer in the Clinton administration. He went on to run Gore's 2000 presidential campaign before returning to the White House as Biden's chief of staff in 2009.