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Instant Reaction Polls Give Romney Big Debate Victory

CNN, CBS, NEW YORK TIMES (US)

Worldcrunch

Instant reaction polls, conducted late Wednesday night, showed Republican candidate Mitt Romney won the first presidential debate in Denver, in a performance expected to raise GOP hopes just one month before the election.

According to a CNN/ORC poll of 430 people who watched the debate, 67% of registered voters thought Romney came out on top, with only 25% believing Obama won.

The poll also suggested that 58% of voters felt Romney had shown himself to be a strong leader, while 37% said the same about Obama.

A poll of undecided voters, conducted by CBS News, also gave Romney the advantage with 46% believing Romney won, 22% siding with Obama and 32% remaining undecided.

The New York Times is reporting that the 67% swing, swaying toward Romney in the CNN poll, was higher than any of the figures in the 2008 surveys, where Obama scored 51% in the first debate and 58% in the third and final debate against Republican John McCain.

It remains unclear how much impact televised debates have on the final electoral outcome, however CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen called it Romney's best performance.

"A week ago, people were saying this was over. We've got a horse race," Gergen said.

Romney on a roll, inventing a new tax policy as he goes; Obama with that sourpuss look, head down. Not a good start for him.#denverdebate

— chrissatullo (@chrissatullo) October 4, 2012

Romney ticks off five-point plan for jobs with good verve.As Jim Fallows said, Mitt has some game when it comes to debates. #denverdebate

— chrissatullo (@chrissatullo) October 4, 2012

Romney appeared coherent and forceful last night compared to Obama, who was hesitant, drawn and defensive.

Democrat Strategist James Carville told CNN: "It looked like Romney wanted to be there and President Obama didn't want to be there ... The President didn't bring his "A" game."

#forwardnotback Obama was calm and respectful tonight Romney acted like he was a real housewife at a reunion show

— Stephen Wren (@ImNotTan) October 4, 2012

Romney wants to cut health carePre existing conditions ----privatize social security privatize everything -- why didn't Obama fight ?

— John Cusack (@johncusack) October 4, 2012

The economy dominated the 90-minute debate with the two presidential candidates sparring over healthcare, employment and tax-cuts - with Romney denying he intended to extend Bush-era tax-cuts for the wealthy.

"I'm not in favor of a $5 trillion tax cut. That's not my plan … So you may keep referring to it as a $5 trillion tax cut, but that's not my plan," the Republican candidate said.

He did, however, claim he would cut funding for the public broadcasting television network PBS:

WTF Mitt Romney... :(

— Big Bird (@BlGBlRD) October 4, 2012

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Ideas

Look At This Crap! The "Enshittification" Theory Of Why The Internet Is Broken

The term was coined by journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the fatal drift of major Internet platforms: if they were ever useful and user-friendly, they will inevitably end up being odious.

A photo of hands holding onto a smartphone

A person holding their smartphone

Gilles Lambert/ZUMA
Manuel Ligero

-Analysis-

The universe tends toward chaos. Ultimately, everything degenerates. These immutable laws are even more true of the Internet.

In the case of media platforms, everything you once thought was a good service will, sooner or later, disgust you. This trend has been given a name: enshittification. The term was coined by Canadian blogger and journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the inevitable drift of technological giants toward... well.

The explanation is in line with the most basic tenets of Marxism. All digital companies have investors (essentially the bourgeoisie, people who don't perform any work and take the lion's share of the profits), and these investors want to see the percentage of their gains grow year after year. This pushes companies to make decisions that affect the service they provide to their customers. Although they don't do it unwillingly, quite the opposite.

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Annoying customers is just another part of the business plan. Look at Netflix, for example. The streaming giant has long been riddling how to monetize shared Netflix accounts. Option 1: adding a premium option to its regular price. Next, it asked for verification through text messages. After that, it considered raising the total subscription price. It also mulled adding advertising to the mix, and so on. These endless maneuvers irritated its audience, even as the company has been unable to decide which way it wants to go. So, slowly but surely, we see it drifting toward enshittification.

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