Poll: Uncommitted voters say Romney wins debate

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney speaks during the first presidential debate with President Barack Obama at the University of Denver, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012, in Denver. / AP

This article was written by Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus and Lindsey Boerma

By a 2 to 1 margin, uncommitted voters crowned Mitt Romney the winner over President Obama in the first presidential debate in Debate, Colo., on Wednesday night, according to a 500-person instant poll taken by CBS News.

In the moments following the candidates' performances on the University of Denver stage, 46 percent of voters gave the economy-centric debate to Romney, 22 percent said they believed the president was the winner, and 32 percent called it a tie. More good news for the GOP nominee: 56 percent of those polled said they viewed Romney in a better light after watching the debate. Eleven percent said their opinion of him dropped, and 32 percent cited no change in opinion.

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CBS News instant poll: Romney wins first presidential debate

Perhaps most promising for Romney, whose upper-class income has helped stifle his ability to relate to the "average American," the percentage of those polled who said they felt the former Massachusetts governor cares about their needs and problems spiked from 30 percent pre-debate to 63 percent post-debate. President Obama also enjoyed a bump in that category, with 53 percent of voters saying they believed he cares about their issues before the debate, moving to 69 percent after the debate.

The uncommitted voters polled are less likely than voters overall to identify with either of the two majority political parties. Six in 10 call themselves independents, 22 percent identify as Democrats, and 18 percent say they're Republicans.

Uncommitted debate watchers saw Mitt Romney as the winner on handling the economy (60 to 39 percent) and the deficit (68 to 31 percent), just as they did before the debate. These voters also think Romney will do a better job on taxes (52 to 47 percent), a reversal from before the debate, when uncommitted voters gave the president a 52 to 40 percent advantage on that. The president still leads on Medicare, 53 to 45 percent.

Uncommitted voters include both undecided voters and those who say they have a candidate preference, but could still change their minds. Before the debate, 23 percent favored President Obama and 22 percent favored Romney, while 50 percent were still undecided. But while voter preference for Mr. Obama changed little, after the debate support for Romney increased 12 points.

For full poll results, see next page

This CBS News poll was conducted online using GfK's web-enabled KnowledgePanel(r), a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The poll was conducted among a nationwide random sample of 523 uncommitted voters who have agreed to watch the debate. Uncommitted voters are those who don't yet know who they will vote for, or who have chosen a candidate but may still change their minds.

GfK's KnowledgePanel participants are initially chosen scientifically by a random selection of telephone numbers and residential addresses. Persons in selected households are then invited by telephone or by mail to participate in the web-enabled KnowledgePanel(r). For those who agree to participate, but do not already have Internet access, GfK provides at no cost a laptop and ISP connection.

This is a scientifically representative poll of uncommitted voters' reaction to the presidential debate. The margin of sampling error could be plus or minus 4 percentage points for results based on the entire sample.

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[mehappyheart]

ENOUGH with whom was the most aggressive! It's a matter of who has the business/financial abilities to make it happen, show results & be thorough and truthful. We have not seen this in this administration. Romneys track record of business and integrity speak volumes!!

[pran38]

After viewing the fact checking of the debate last evening, and I am not at all surprised, it was found that Obama lied about many more things. Not just stretching the truth flat out lies. This should not be a shock to the American people because he has lied from day one. He has not EARNED another 4 years because he has not done what he promised for the past 4 years. I did not vote for the liar in 2008 and will not vote for him in 2012. Say what you will but Mitt Romney knows how to run a business, government is a business. We need leadership, not flip-flopping, we need to balance the budget, something Obama does not have a clue. If people will be honest, note that he does not tell the trueth and vote for what is best for the country and not for themselves personally....then there is only one choice ROMNEY ALL THE WAY! I pray to GOD, literally, that we can get this country moving in the right direction and Obama had his chance and did an absolute horrible job. We are worse off than when he started. I cannot believe he had the nerve to flat out lie about the Lybia last night

[JonE529]

SELF SUSTAINED ELECTRIC VEHICLE
The game plan for the off the grid electric vehicle is to set up shop with a few more machines than I already have to do fabrication. I plan to purchase a Factory 5 kit car as a platform to do the build, or possibly weld a frame from scratch. Purchase 2 of the latest lithium ion battery packs from A123 systems. I have designed a charging system that needs to be fabricated and installed on the vehicle, although wind turbines with a CVT transmission will also do the job. The charging system is 4 1/2 HP drag, and operates off of the rear axle and wheels, the synchronous motor puts out 110 HP peak, and the math is pretty simple on that. I have 2 of this country's finest electric designers to iron out the details on the battery management system, even though the technology that is available today is pretty much plug and play. The vehicle will be front wheel drive with an automatic transmission. It will have a 110hp synchronous motor. The car will also have a percentage of the charging systems going directly to the motor to sustain the battery that is pushing the vehicle while the other is charging. Even when you plug an electric vehicle in at your home, unless you have solar power, electricity is not clean. In 2009 the U.S. got 44.9% of it's electric from coal and there is nothing clean about that, 20.3% from nuclear and what are we going to do with those spent rods? Then the debate of 23.4% from natural gas and that's no fracking good. When you plug your electric car into your home don't think you are doing the earth a favor, your just switching from big oil to utilities. I have a solution, this is painfully simple, and the math works. This car will truly be a zero carbon footprint vehicle; we need to save the earth's oil for future generations, for the things that are necessary like pharmaceuticals, plastics, lubricants, and rubber. I am a nuts and bolts guy, I can build this and make it work, I could even set up a shop and mass produce them, but I can't do the marketing, I need a lot of help, mostly capital. I am willing to relocate or do anything it takes to make this vehicle come to fruition. Lung related diseases are just hitting the headlines, such as SARS, but this is just the tip of the iceberg, it's going to get much worse, it will be an incurable epidemic. The earth needs this vehicle - NOW. Unfortunately nobody is interested in funding this project.
Jon Evans

[verifabletruthmatters]

Romney couldn't have "WON", the first debate, because he lied his way through every subject in the debate, just as they lie constantly on the Campaign Trail, just as they lied during their GOP Convention. Fortunately these events are FACT-CHECKED, so that voters can know the lies about the cuts from Medicare, or that Romney's Plan will blow up the DEBT by $5 TRILLION while gutting key services for the destitute, disabled, elderly, and Pell Grants, etc. The GOP love that the American voters are largely poorly informed or oblivious and therefore easily duped and manipulated. The GOP Campaign of DECEIT is entering its 4th decade, still backed by a corrupt infrastructure, as they pursue their MOTTO: "Fix the data to push the HIDDEN AGENDAS: lie, deceive, fabricate". The only thing coming from this strategy is one "damage-needed repair" cycle after another. Romney is being advised on Foreign Policy by the same Neocons that ran Bush-Cheney behind the scenes. They've been planning their war with Iran since 2008, and sent Erik Prince former owner of Blackwater to the UAE in 2010 to prepare for war. Romney-Ryan will largely be Bush-Cheney 2.

What the American People need to know is that the GOP have "DEATH SPIRALS" in motion in 2012 that have already killed tens of millions, soon to be hundreds of millions, with BILLIONS in damages that 2015-2020 will be TRILLIONS in damages. Many of them will make the horrific damages from Sept 2008 look like a cakewalk.
1) Most immediate-- Fiscal Cliff caused by TEA Party extremists holding Congress hostage on both the 2011 Budget and raising the DEBT Ceiling. Now over ONE TRILLION in cuts across the board will cause 2 million people to lose, some of the 7.5 million jobs created since 2009, driving unemployment to 9%. Ben Bernanke, Christine Lagarde, Congressional Budget office have all warned, more than once, " It's too much, too soon".
2)The Paul Ryan--GOP "cut and gut Budget" will drive unemployment past 15%, Just as a similar plan was also forced on Roosevelt in 1937. Christine Lagarde has both warned and explained that this strategy, which has been used in Europe, will cause Europe years and years to recover, so we can expect the same.
3) Global Warming has killed, murdered really, tens of millions from sea level rise, extreme weather events, and largely from food crop failures, which have affected more than 500 million people since 2010, when wheat in Russia failed 2010, 2011, 2012 and corn and soy beans failed in U.S. in 2012. Since these are staples, largely used by the poor and are in many associated products, when there's a shortage the price jumps are HUGE. Starvation and malnutrition numbers went from 600 million to over a billion from the 2010-2011 wheat failures of 40% and the 2012 failures are expected to affect another 200 million people. So the GOP, and the multinationals who own them, are now murdering people.
4) Global Warming will be accelerated by the Keystone XL Pipeline, putting the planet over a cliff by 2015. It won't be reversible. Without the 70% extra pollution spewed by processing the filthy tar sands from Alberta, where they're destroying an area the size of Florida; scientist know that 80% of the damage is already locked in from the 3 decades of lies about Global Warming, so the heat from the carbon in the atmosphere will play out, and the other 20% will be locked in by 2018. That's without the filthy tar sands processing spewing 70% more pollution. With the tar sands, the planet is over a cliff 2015, for oil we do NOT need.
5) Somewhere in there, if the GOP are in power they will repeal Dodd Frank, FINANCE REFORM, so that derivatives stuffed with junk can damage the economy for the 4th time, by 2018-2020, because so far the pattern has been 1987 (S&L), 1998 (LTCM), 2008 (Subprime). They undoubtedly will succeed at that point in destroying not only the US economy, but the world.

In the meantime, we could be growing GDP by 158% with millions of Green Jobs, leave the DEBT in the dust, and get a Sustainable Future by shutting down Global Warming. The GOP have worked very hard to sabotage this, since they are owned by dirty fossil fuels. (REINVENTING FIRE by rmi.org and TAR SANDS by Andrew Nikiforuk). Amory Lovins' Plan calls for getting completely off of most dirty fossil fuels by 2050 and getting to 46% renewable energy instead. Obama's Plan was more aggressive to get to 80% renewable energy by 2035. In reality, in order to save the Ice Sheets, and every major city and coastline all over the planet, we now have to get to 80% renewable energy by 2025. Anyone under the age of 50, especially the children and grandchildren, now have no future, because the planet is on a trajectory to become uninhabitable. The very corrupt GOP, the dirty fossil fuels that own them, and the uninformed Conservatives who support them will be responsible for murdering billions, trashing a planet, and destroying the U.S.

[jeannel2012]

As a strong supporter of President Obama, I was disappointed in his debate performance but not in his performance as President. Unfortunately, modern debates are about style over substance. We've got three more debates to go. Fasten your seat belts.

[SubNar]

"Uncommitted Voter" is an oxymoron and an easy cop-out for an exceptionally lazy and unmotivated sector of the electorate whose importance to the outcome of elections is grossly exaggerated. These are the same pretentious people who spend hours in a supermarket trying to make up their empty minds which brand of breakfast cereal they should buy and then end up going home with none. 'Uncommitted Voters" are legends in their own minds (or lack thereof) whose mythical status is awe-inspiring only to those media types who also fancy themselves as 'one of them'. The supermarkets will be virtually empty on November 6th. and that's where these 'uncommitted voters' should plan on casting their ballots.

[wfw3536]

I thought the liberal press and MSNBC were going to have a melt down. For days they have been saying the election was over. When Romney made Obama look like terrible and out of his league, over 55 million folks saw a new hope for our country in Romney. Obama's problem is this time he has to run on his record which is a total failure.

[TimeToEvolve]

Robbed Me is a slimy, greedy jerk who everyone hates. Slick willy can debate and lie through his teeth better than most. That's all you can take from this debate.

[JV1970]

No, not everyone! Just you libs!

[draimanformayor]

When MSNBC's pundits are screaming in frustration post-debate, that is a telling tale and an eye opener. I was not surprised to see President Obama so stoic through the night. Perhaps he was trying to convey a sense of failure and being in charge of all his failed programs. That is a fact.
The issue I have with that is we have some serious economic and international problems surrounding us as a nation. We are at a cross-roads. Mitt Romney - whether you embrace his positions or not - seemed more apt to take the reins and lead the nation based on his performance last night.
Mitt Romney has vast experience in running a busines with an economic success. Barak Obama has no experience at all. Obama has had his chance the past 4 years and he failed miserably. It is time for the American public to wake up and elect Mitt Romney as the next president of the United States. Romney will bring dignity and economic recovery to the United States.

[TimeToEvolve]

Style is all they were reacting too. The lies of Robbed Me will be used for the next 5 weeks against him. Flip-flop, flip-flop.

They don't call Robbed Me Governor Etch a Sketch for nothing.

[JV1970]

draimanformayor is right! It's just as Ann Romney said a few weeks ago. Before Obama got into politics he'd never ran so as a lemonade stand! Also four years ago Obama promised hope and change and implied that if he were elected he'd bring it immediately. It's been four years and it still hasn't happened. The unemployment rate is still much too high and when you're unemployed and you have kids to feed and bills to pay you want help IMMEDIATELY! You can't wait another four years on a promise of something that may not happen!

[TimeToEvolve]

I guess that is why they call independent voters low information voters. The value style (lying slimy shyster Robbed Me) over substance (Obama). Almost nothing of what Robbed Me said is what he has been running on. He is lying sack of crap. God Help America.