Democrats and independents who were open to voting for Mitt Romney were not won over by the first debate, a memo released by the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action argues. The memo by Democratic pollster Geoff Garin of the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group comes from a dial-in session in Aurora, Colorado of mostly “weak Democrats and independents” who voted for Obama but are open to supporting Romney. Among the panelists who already leaned toward Obama, Romney scored some high marks but President Obama did as well.
Six in 10 respondents gave President Obama favorable ratings for his overall performance in the debate, compared with just one in seven who did so for Romney.
The starkest difference between the two candidates was in their likeability. Eight in 10 respondents gave President Obama high marks for coming across as likeable and down to earth, while very few felt that way about Governor Romney.
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Compared with the beginning of the session, there was a doubling in the number of respondents who said that Obama has good ideas for improving the economy. While Romney also improved on this dimension, 63% of respondents said at the end that Obama expressed good ideas for improving the economy, compared with 27% who said the same about Romney in the debate.
The conclusions was that “Obama continues to have the advantage with them, but the deal still is not sealed.”
