Romney Won the Debate, But Will the Country Lose?

Nick Gillespie, the Editor in Chief of Reason Magazine, the libertarian magazine of “Free Minds and Free Markets”, writes about the impact of last nights debate.

Last night’s presidential debate between Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney was far more substantive and wonky than most watchers would have ever predicted. More important, given Romney’s strong showing and nearly complete domination of Obama, it shows that the race between them – already tight – is only going to get tigher over the last weeks of the election season. That’s good news for the Romney camp.

At the same time, and despite multiple attempts by the moderator of the debate and the participants themselves to stake out radically different visions of the role of government, Obama and Romney were far more similar than different when they talked policy. That’s bad news for the country.

Last night may have been the first night that many Americans – including diehard Republicans and possibly even the former Massachusetts governor himself – could really envision Romney occupying the White House and running the federal government. He was by turns charming, insistent, deferential, heated, and always on point.

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