America watched Wednesday night as the two presidential candidates debated challenging questions that had the potential to sway the votes of undecided voters.

President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney debated issues like job creation, federal deficit, social security, healthcare and the role of government during their debate at the University of Denver.

Former “NewsHour” anchor and MU School of Journalism graduate Jim Lehrer mediated the debate and began the evening with a question regarding economic issues regarding job creation. Obama opened up with a statement supporting investment in education and training. He mentioned the importance of “rebuilding” America after two wars and developing “new energies” to help small businesses and reduce deficit.

Romney’s response to education reform revolved around giving states the rights to handle issues regarding schools. He said education is a key factor in the future of the economy.

“Our training programs right now, we’ve got 47 of them, housed in the federal government, reporting to eight different agencies,” Romney said. “Overhead is overwhelming. We’ve got to get those dollars back to the states and go to the workers so they can create their own pathways to get in the training they need for jobs that will really help them.”

Obama mentioned the “Race to the Top” program, which increases school standards and methods of training educators more efficiently. “Race to the Top” has already started educational reform in 46 states, and Obama elaborated further on the contributions he would like to make to the program.

“So now I want to hire another 100,000 new math and science teachers, and create 2 million more slots in our community colleges so that people can get trained for the jobs that are out there right now,” he said.

In regard to job creation, Obama criticized Romney’s central economic plan.

“Gov. Romney’s central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut on top of the extension of the Bush tax cuts,” he said. “That’s another trillion dollars, and $2 trillion in additional military spending that the military hasn’t asked for. That’s $8 trillion.”

He also said these excess trillions could potentially harm the “vital” middle-class Americans in terms of cost.

Romney responded that his plan would provide tax relief to the middle class.

“I’m not going to reduce the share of taxes paid by high-income people,” Romney said. “High-income people are doing just fine in this economy. They’ll do fine whether you’re president or I am.”

Romney called the effect of the president’s current policies regarding the middle-class citizens as “crushing.”

MU communication professor and debate expert Mitchell McKinney said Obama missed a handful of chances to attack Romney’s talking points.

“In several instances President Obama failed to respond to a number of direct Romney attacks, such as Obama’s energy policy or his inability to reduce the federal deficit,” he said. “Other examples of Obama seeming to pass on an opportunity to take on Mitt Romney was in the entitlement question. Here was a clear opening for Obama to point out Romney’s 47 percent remark, yet no mention of this from Obama.”

The differences between Obama and Romney’s debate styles were apparent to McKinney.

“Mitt Romney seemed full of facts and figures (Wednesday), working hard to combat his ‘not enough specifics’ charge,” McKinney said. “Barack Obama’s deliberative approach often seemed halting compared to the more energized Romney who approached his debate task with a sense of urgency tonight.”

Lehrer steered the direction of the debate toward the Affordable Care Act. Romney shared his opinions on why he would repeal this controversial piece of legislation.

“The Congressional Budget Office has said (the ACA) will cost $2,500 a year more than traditional insurance,” he said. “So it’s adding to cost. Expensive things hurt families.”

Obama’s reasoning for keeping the ACA started with his views on the benefits of the program.

“Number one, if you’ve got health insurance, it doesn’t mean a government takeover. You keep your own insurance. You keep your own doctor,” Obama said. “But it does say insurance companies can’t jerk you around. They can’t impose arbitrary lifetime limits.”

The President also focused on the cooperative aspect of the ACA’s creation.

“This was a bipartisan idea,” Obama said. “In fact, it was a Republican idea, and Gov. Romney at the beginning of this debate wrote and said what we did in Massachusetts could be a model for the nation.”

McKinney said supporters of both candidates will come away from the debate proclaiming their candidate as the winner.

“This first match-up between President Obama and Gov. Romney produced no ‘knock out’ punches tonight nor any ‘game changing’ gaffes or mistakes,” McKinney said. “Overall, Mitt Romney’s performance was likely strong enough to silence the critics of his campaign, those from within his own party, and re-energize his supporters.”