at the end of the day and by the way, and by the way, by the way, the health care industry will be appetizing tonight on this program. shannon: debate moderators frequently become part of the highlight reel. let s break it down. fox news media analyst, hoechst of media buzz, howard kurtz. that might have been the dramatic high point. it was a substantive, wonky debate. they didn t force time limits which kept the trains on track but may also have limited any unscripted or viral moments. don lemon, the liberal opinion host on the panel, asked questions blatantly from the left promoting gun control and referring to president trump as a racially divisive bigot. jake tapper and dana did an excellent job. let s take a look at tapper
then all about vps, paul ryan and joe biden, debate next week and see where the debate conversation goes. that is certainly going to be maybe more interesting than tonight s was. expect a little more fire from the veeps, for sure. little bit. little more entertaining. thank you, care ken. a long day, live for us this morning in denver. thank you again. stay with abc news for in-depth debate analys senior washington er ri klein will have poli observations right here coming up later in this half hour. well, president obama hoped to put osama bin laden on trial. that is according to a new book out later this month. the book quoting the president saying, mr. obama thought he would be in a strong enough political position after bin laden s capture to put bin laden on trial in the u.s. if bin laden survived that navy s.e.a.l. takedown. the president expecting bin laden going down fighting the book the finish on sale in 12 days. and the administration says there s now evidence tha
not a joe six-pack debate by any stretch. there weren t a lot of bright spots for the president. this was romney s night. everyone on both side saying that. one effective thing the president did, pointed out romney is still short on details on a few key things, health care plan, his tax care plan, as well as as frank-dodd. did he score any points as far as romney being a blank canvas? there were a few vulnerabilities when you talked about entitlements, tax plans, he has to square these numbers. he dug himself some holes, that the obama campaign can dig him into even more. it s going to be difficult for him to square those things in a future debate. i think there is possible areas of opportunity there. this was not something that even the most dedicated partisans can paint as a good night for president obama. you know it s a bad night if opinions are that uniform, huh? exactly. the next presidential debate, tuesday, october 16th. thank you, rick. thanks. thank you, guys.
reporter: romney s comments about the 47% have taken a toll on his campaign. even before that leaked video polls showed americans think he favors the wealthy over the middle-class. he clearly wanted to try and change that perception. the people who are having a hard time right now are middle-income americans. under the president s policies, middle-income americans have been buried. they re just being crushed. i will not under any circumstances raise taxes on middle-income families. reporter: but the president said his rival doesn t have the right solutions, and that romney can t keep his goal of cutting taxes and not adding to the deficit without hurting the middle class. now, five weeks before the election, he is saying his big bold idea is never mind. the debate later turned to the president s health care law which romney says he will get rid of if elected. it cut $716 billion from medicare to pay for it. i want to put the money back in medicare. it has killed jobs. rep
president obama s most ardent supporters admit he turned in a lackluster debate performance last night. and now we ll see if mitt romney can capitalize on his strong showing. abc s karen travers live in denver where the debates took place. reporter: good morning. there were missed opportunities for president obama and mitt romney. wonky debate, in-depth policy talk. mitt romney came out very aggressive, very prepared, and put president obama on defense for most of the 90 minutes. president obama and mitt romney finally went head-to-head, right out of the gate, the candidates boiled down their economic arguments. governor romney has a perspective that says if we cut taxes, skewed toward the wealthy and roll back regulations that we ll be better off. i ve got a different view. the president has a silar to the view he had whe rn an four years ago. if you will, trickle down government would work. that s not the right answer for america.