Political analyst and Democratic pollster Doug Schoen tells Newsmax that the big winner in Wednesday’s debate may very well have been President Barack Obama.
“The bottom line is I would call it a draw,” Schoen said in an exclusive interview following the debate. “The declared winner is President Obama, as long as these guys keep going at each other like this.”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum seemed to be focused more on the immediate threat posed by one another than on defeating Obama in the general election.
He added that Romney may be the short-term winner among the Republicans.
“It’s a two-person race. The focus was on Santorum,” according to Schoen. “Santorum held his own, but under the weight of Romney’s attacks and his super PACs, the race has stabilized in a situation where the Santorum surge is seemingly blunted for now.”
Schoen predicted that the debate won’t be much of a factor in Tuesday’s primaries in Arizona and Romney’s home state of Michigan.
“I don’t believe any minds were changed tonight but I think Romney gave as good as he got,” Schoen. said. “And my take away is you've got two guys going at each other really hard. You’ve got Romney having politically stabilized the situation, at the very least in Michigan.”
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.