Chris Wallace: Romney Looked Like 'President Protecting a Lead,' Obama the 'Challenger Trying to Catch Up'

October 23rd, 2012 8:03 AM

Although much of Obama's media thought he won Monday's presidential debate in Boca Raton, Florida, Fox News's Chris Wallace saw it much differently.

Speaking moments after the event's conclusion, Wallace said, "I felt in the middle of the debate that if I had been on a desert island for the last four years, and I had just been parachuted into this debate, I would have thought the guy that turned out to be Mitt Romney was the President protecting a lead, and that Barack Obama was the challenger trying somewhat desperately to catch up" (video follows with transcript):

CHRIS WALLACE: Let me first give you my general opinion, and that was I felt in the middle of the debate that if I had been on a desert island for the last four years, and I had just been parachuted into this debate, I would have thought the guy that turned out to be Mitt Romney was the President protecting a lead, and that Barack Obama was the challenger trying somewhat desperately to catch up. Obama was slashing, was personal, was cutting. I thought that Romney was big-picture, seemed to have much more of an agenda for the future than the President did. And I emailed one of his top aides in the course of the debate and said, "What’s behind this strategy?" And clearly he was not taking the bait, not getting into fights with Barack Obama. And this official said, "This is all Mitt Romney’s idea. This is how he wants to conduct this debate."