Presidential Debate: Romney Dominates, Obama Cautious

Republican challenger Mitt Romney put up a tough fight against United States President Barack Obama as the two sparred over jobs, taxes and healthcare in the first presidential debate.

US presidential debates are a time-honored tradition, with the first nationally-televised presidential debate being held in 1960.

Taking the offensive right from the word go in the 90-minute encounter, Wednesday night in Denver, Colorado, Romney made good use of a gaffe by Vice President Joe Biden to suggest that the middle class had been "buried" under Obama's economic policies.

Obama, on the other hand, sounded somewhat professorial to begin with as he was forced to defend his record of four years in office while he charged his opponent with vowing to undo a host of his reforms without specifying what he would do instead.

Voters seemed to agree with the critics in giving Romney the upper hand in the debate with a CNN snap poll of debate watchers saying 67 percent believed Romney was the winner, and 25 percent believed Obama was the winner.

The other presidential debates will occur on Oct. 16 in New York and Oct 22 in Florida. Vice President Joe Biden and House member Paul Ryan, Romney's running mate, will debate on Oct 11 in Kentucky.