Mitt Romney impresses voters more than Barack Obama in presidential debate: Poll

US President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney exchanged sharp barbs when they fought over economic topics including policies ranging from economy , taxation, jobs and healthcare to education during the first of the three high-stake presidential debates on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama, from the Democratic Party, who is seeking his re-election, said the US has been back to economic growth and job creation, as the nation's private sector has created about 5 million job opportunities in the past 30 months.

The Republican challenger Romney blasted Obama on his failed economic policies, which Romney said had led to higher gasoline and food prices, lower US household income and spiked federal government debt.

Romney stressed his five-point plan to create millions of new jobs in the next four years, including achieving North America's energy independence, opening new foreign markets for US goods and services, slashing government spending and reducing taxes on small businesses.

A CNN/ORC poll released just after the 90-minute presidential debate moderated by Jim Lehrer of the PBS news showed that 65-year-old Romney was way ahead of 51-year-old Obama in impressing the voters.

Romney was voted by 67 per cent of the registered voters, while Obama was supported by just 25 per cent. The results gave a big boost to the Romney campaign given that all the national polls shows that it is a tight race between the two.

The debates, a regular feature of American presidential campaigns since 1960, allow a chance to measure up the leaders who would be president as they stand side-by-side.

"I'm concerned about America. I'm concerned about the direction America has been taking over the last four years. I know this is bigger than election about the two of us as individuals. It's bigger than our respective parties. It's an election about the course of America - what kind of America do you want to have for yourself and for your children," Romney said.

Noting that he and Obama present two very different paths for the US, the Republican nominee said they lead in very different directions.

"It is not just looking to our words that you have to take in evidence of where they go; you can look at the record," he said.

With PTI and IANS inputs