What a way to watch a debate?! 

With iPad (tuned in to Twitter) in one hand, and the TV remote in the other, I watched the first presidential debate on Wednesday night.  Here's how it went:

At first I tried watching each candidate's Facebook pages, but couldn't see any new posts until after the debate was over.

While watching, I used hash tags to see what others were thinking about the debates.  I first used "#debates" about 10 minutes before they started.  That brought up several interesting tweets such as offers to follow certain tags that would count the lies of each candidate.  I decided I would come back to that one, but later when I tried to find it again I couldn't.  So I tried #romneylies and #obamalies, which produced comments saturated with heavy emotion.  I was disappointed to see how few - on either side - actually specified anything about the perceived lie, either what the lie was or any evidence that it was a lie.  Most were things like, "I hate this guy. You can just tell he's lying" or "I'm so tired of his lies".  I did try challenging them a few times, asking them for more, but never got any response. 

I also tagged specific issues like "taxes" and "deficit" and usually got tweets from the candidates' own camps.  There were some, however, who did seem to have done some homework and either quoted their own facts or refuted those the candidate was referencing. 

There were a few tweets talking about the venue and  the lack of audience reaction (imposed by the moderator). I found I agreed with them. What was entertaining to me were the tweets about things like neckties and smirks and who touched whose arm.  There are some very funny comedians out there!  The best was the post on FB that came out the next day with a Photo Shopped image of the two candicates wearing each other's hair. 

The tweets I read had a surprising effect on me.  Before this experience I often felt the division between those who support President Obama and those who support Mitt Romney was as wide as the ocean and that there was no in between.  But there was ample evidence that out there in the country somewhere are many, many people like me who see the good in both men and even though we have our reasons for leaning one way or the other, we see that the world may not completely collapse if the election doesn't go the way we want it to.

Did what I saw change my opinions about the candidates?  Yes.  They were made stronger.  I felt Romney won, hands down.  His rhetoric was filled with nuts and bolts of the way things are and the way things could be.  While Pres. Obama had some of that, I felt his responses were based more on emotion and trying to placate the various cultures in the country.  It's the same concern I have with his tenure as president.  The polls may not agree with me, but I still feel Mitt Romney would be the better president.

What a way to watch TV!  I'll be doing it the same way for the future debate.