First Debate from Fernando Rojo on Vimeo.

On Oct. 3, roughly 70 million Americans tuned in to watch the first of a series of three presidential debates.

Many Community High School students gained respect for Governor Romney and felt that he became much more relatable. He had an impressive and articulate speech, but the details of his plans are blurry.

While students’ voting opinions were largely unaffected, they felt that it was refreshing to see the candidates in a new light.

PBS moderator Jim Lehrer’s did not maintain a strong role in the debate. His lack of authority derailed the flow of the debate and caused it to turn into a shouting match.

Obama was criticized for being passive and allowing Romney to dominate the debate. Though Romney was pronounced as the debate’s victor, he was found lying about his own policies and plans as president. The winner of the debate was based on theatrical performance. The New York Times reports:

Mr. Romney claimed, against considerable evidence, that he had no intention of cutting taxes on the rich or enacting a tax cut that would increase the deficit

That simply isn’t true. Mr. Romney wants to restore the Bush-era tax cut that expires at the end of this year and largely benefits the wealthy. He wants to end the estate tax and the gift tax, providing a huge benefit only to those with multimillion-dollar estates, at a cost of more than $1 trillion over a decade to the deficit. He wants to preserve the generous rates on capital gains that benefit himself personally and others at his economic level. And he wants to cut everyone’s tax rates by 20 percent, which again would be a gigantic boon to the wealthy

On health care, Mr. Romney pretended that he had an actual plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, and that it covered pre-existing conditions. He has no such plan

Find out more from the original NY Times Article.