ANALYSIS AIR DATE: Oct. 3, 2012

Shields and Brooks: First Debate Focused on Details Rather than Larger Themes

SUMMARY

Judy Woodruff, Gwen Ifill and Christina Bellantoni discuss the candidates' performances in the first debate with NewsHour's political analysts David Brooks and Mark Shields. For Shields and Brooks, the most interesting part of the debate were the topics the candidates did not bring up and the comments that went unchallenged.

Beginning October 24, 2012, PBS NewsHour will allow open commenting for all registered users. We hope that the elimination of our moderation process will enable a more organic discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment will be removed. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.