After months of stump speeches and negative ad campaigns, Americans were able to see the two presidential candidates face each other for the first time Wednesday night at the University of Denver.
The first of three debates focused on the economy and domestic policy, which many Americans say is a high priority.
Before the debate, many predicted the victory would go to President Obama.
However, Romney, already in Denver, told a cheering crowd Monday night, "In my view it's not so much winning and losing or even the people themselves, the president and myself - it's about something bigger than that," the Associated Press reported.
He also told supporters he would get America working again. "Jobs is job one under my administration," Romney said, debuting a new line midway through his standard campaign speech.
"President Obama is the most gifted speaker in modern political history," said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul to ABC in an effort to lower expectations about the Republican candidate's upcoming performance.
Comments like that led President Obama to respond with a humble assessment of his own skills: "Gov. Romney is a good debater. I'm just OK," he said.
However, many analysts said that Governor Romney had given a solid performance, providing specifics and specifically critiquing the past four years of the Obama presidency.
Many added said that he understood the issues better than the President, a "masterful" job, one CNN panelist said.
Others stated that President Obama had not come prepared, and even looked disengaged during the first half hour.
Another CNN panelist said that "Romney was able to out-Obama Obama," and that Romney brought up topics that Obama was unprepared to discuss.
When President Obama is on the campaign trail, he speaks to "the faithful" and isn’t challenged on the last four years. Wednesday night, Romney challenged Obama on every point with facts, panelists said.
Additionally, all the negative attacks featured in each candidate’s ads were absent from both Romney and Obama.
In a flash poll from CNN and ORC International, 67 percent of registered voters believed Romney won, compared to 25 percent for President Obama.
