Washington: Confident of re-election, US President Barack Obama has dismissed his lacklustre showing in the first debate against Mitt Romney as “one bad night”, saying that fundamentals of the race are still in his favour.
“Governor Romney had a good night. I had a bad night. It’s not the first time,” Obama told the ABC news in in his first televised interview since the presidential debate in Denver on October 3.
Obama will now face Romney in the second of the three presidential debates on October 16 in New York.
I think what’s important is the, the fundamentals of what this race is about have not changed. You know, Governor Romney went to a lotta trouble to try to hide what his positions are,” Obama said asserting that he would fight his way back.
“This was one event. We have got four weeks to go. Nobody is going to be fighting harder than I am. .. What they need is to make sure they tune in on Tuesday next week,” he said.
“If you have a bad game you just move on, you look forward to the next one and it makes you that much more determined,” he added.
Asked whether it’s possible that his poor showing had handed Romney the election, Obama replied, “no.”
He said “yes” with confidence when asked if he was going to win the November 6 election.
Obama’s appeared for first interview after his lacklustre performance during the October 3 debate, after which Romney is said to have an edge over Obama.
Earlier in the day in a telephonic interview to a radio show Obama said that he had been “too polite” in dealing with Romney.
“I think it’s fair to say I was just too polite, because, you know, it is hard sometimes just keep on saying and what you are saying is not true,” Obama told the radio host Tom Joyner.
“It gets repetitive. But, you know, the good news is, is that’s just the first one. Governor Romney put forward a whole bunch of stuff that either involved him running away from positions that he had taken or doubling down on things like Medicare vouchers that are going to hurt him long term,” he said. (PTI)
