A high school debater weighs in on the Obama-Romney debate

Even high school debaters know better than to insult the moderator.

One of Canada’s most prominent high school debaters today, Shervin Yousef-Zadeh of Surrey's Fraser Heights Secondary, told The Vancouver Observer his views on Wednesday's Obama-Romney debate.

While President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney had their first of three debates on Wednesday night, Yousef-Zadeh found the Republican candidate to be lackluster despite the media's rave reviews. His critique of Romney was worthy of a political pundit.

“The tactics used by Romney during the debate were fairly elementary,” he said.

“He's great at giving zingers, ignoring important questions regarding his own domestic policies, and running down the clock by filling time with repetitive rhetoric." 

Speaking as someone with years of competitive experience, Shervin had harsh words for the candidate’s debate skills.

“[Romney] really needs to go back and improve on the basics. He needs to understand how to defend his points with reason, how to give a rebuttal based on facts and not falsities -- and most importantly -- how to treat his opponent and moderator with respect.”

In the high school debating circuit, debaters are tasked with convincing their judges and moderators that their statements ring truer than those of their opponent.

Yousef-Zadeh said that Mitt Romney didn’t show this, and instead went ahead stating that he would cut funding to PBS, the broadcasting host of the debates.

Romney was also quick to bring Big Bird and debate moderator Jim Lehrer into the mix of employees he would lay off if he were boss. 

“If I acted like that in one of my debates, I’d probably be asked to apologize,” Yousef-Zadeh criticized. 

But he agreed with pundits that Romney was the winner of the debate noting President Obama's failure to put up a fight.  

“Obama was a bit over-confident walking into the debate,” he observed. 

“It was obvious that his confidence faded after a few decent answers from his opponent, and a few botched answers that he gave himself.”

“He passed up opportunities to undermine Romney and instead, drove at the same tired points that his party has drilled to prove its success over the past four years. It was enough to keep Democrats happy, but far from what was needed to sway undecided voters.”