Mitt Romney won a clear victory over Barack Obama in the first televised US presidential debate on Wednesday night, delivering an unexpectedly accomplished performance to revive Republican hopes of reclaiming the White House.
In a 90-minute clash in Colorado seen by tens of millions of voters, the former Massachusetts governor aggressively attacked Obama for the weakness of the US economy at the end of his first term while making an unusually impassioned case for why he, instead, should be elected in November.
He accused Obama of inflicting on the American people, a "trickle-down government" of ever-growing control by Washington, turning Obama's accusation that the Republican challenger favours "trickle-down economics" against the incumbent.
Romney accused Obama of proposing "bigger government, spending more, taxing more and regulating more".
Obama landed some punches on Romney's tax plan but appeared restrained and missed several opportunities to attack.
A poll of registered voters by CNN found that 67% thought Romney had won, compared to 25% for Obama.
Romney displayed more energy and enthusiasm than the Democratic incumbent 15 years his junior who so electrified American voters four years ago. Only 30% of voters had predicted a Romney win.
Obama's backers scrambled to keep his edge in the race yesterday.
The president's campaign workers accused Romney of repeated factual errors, such as insisting that Obama would cut $716-billion (R6107-billion) from Medicare.
Obama held a lead of five to six percentage points over Romney in most national polls, and is ahead by at least narrow margins in almost all the battleground states in which the election will be decided.
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