WASHINGTON: Opinion surveys, released on Tuesday, showed that US President Barack Obama won the third and final debate with his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
Mr Obama also won the second debate last week although he was defeated decisively in the first debate. The election is scheduled on Nov 6.Monday night’s debate focused on foreign policy issues.
In a CBS News poll, 53 per cent awarded the debate to President Obama, 23 per cent gave it to Mr Romney and 24 per cent were undecided.
An instant CNN poll found a closer contest with 48 per cent favouring Mr Obama and 40 per cent backing Mr Romney. The remainderswere undecided.
The CBS survey also noted that many voters believed Mr Obama was better suited to handle an international crisis.
Before the debate, 46 per cent said they would trust Mr Romney, and 58 per cent said they would trust the president. Those numbers spiked to 49 per cent and 71 per cent, respectively.
“Overwhelmingly, the same group of voters said President Obama would do a better job than Mr Romney on terrorism and national security, 64 per cent to 36 per cent. But they were evenly split, 50-50, on which candidate would better handle China,” CBS reported.
The CNN poll, however, noted that Mr Obama’s aggressive style gave him a slight victory over Mr Romney but damaged his image.
“President Obama’s aggressive strategy led the debate audience to give him a narrow 51 per cent — 46 per cent edge on leadership, but it may have come at the cost of likeability,” CNN reported.
“A majority of debate watchers said that President Obama seemed to be the stronger leader,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
“But on the question of likeability, the two candidates are essentially tied on a trait that has generally been an advantage for Mr Obama.
That’s probably due to the fact that two-thirds of debate watchers felt that Mr Obama spent more time than Mitt Romney on the attack.”
CNN also noted that many debate watchers believed both candidates were able to handle the responsibilities of commander in chief. CNN called it “an important threshold for Mr Romney” because he was considered weak on this particular subject when the campaign began.
CNN also reported that men and women were divided over this issue.
Majorities of both genders saw Mr Obama as capable of handling that role, but women were split roughly 50/50 on whether Mr Romney had proven himself on that measure, while men responded well to Mr Romney’s performance.
Women also saw Mr Obama as the stronger leader; men saw Mr Romney as having the edge on leadership. As a result, women saw Mr Obama as the winner of the debate by 22 points, while a plurality of men saw Mr Romney as the victor on Monday night. This is good news for President Obama as women voters are expected to play a key role in this close election.