John Truscott, president of the Lansing-based communications firm Truscott Rossman and an MSU alumnus, said the public’s perception of Obama frayed after the first debate — after the president was frequently caught on camera looking down — compared to Romney, who many predicted would be stiff and scripted but instead came out swinging.

“If you look at the first debate for Romney, it allowed him to destroy the narrative that the Obama campaign has painted,” Truscott said. “They have tried to leave an impression of Romney that I thought he really did a good job of destroying.”

The candidates first struck a chord with young voters, immediately fielding a question from a New York-area college student asking for reassurance about finding a job after graduation.

Romney bantered with the student briefly, criticizing the president’s record the past four years.

“The key thing is to make sure you can get a job when you get out of school, and what’s happened over the past four years has been very hard,” Romney said. “That’s just unacceptable.”

Obama also stood up to challenge the former Massachusetts governor several times in clear disagreement with Romney’s proposed tax policies.

“What (Romney says) is he’s … going to cut middle-class taxes, but when he’s asked, ‘How are you going to do it?’ … he can’t tell you,” Obama said.

The format provided an opportunity for some students to judge each candidate.

“Candidates who do the best in elections, for the most part, they’re doing really well (in town hall debates) and can ad-lib freely off the audience,” said Carly Wunderlich, MSU Debate Team program and events coordinator.

Both Obama and Romney likely benefited from the back-and-forth audience interaction unique to a town hall debate, but neither could risk being too aggressive, Truscott said.

“It completely changes how you handle answering questions,” he said. “You’re not talking to a moderator or even talking to the other candidate; you’re talking to members of the audience.”

Undecided voters often gauge a candidate’s appeal based on his or her candid appearances, which both Obama and Romney needed to tailor to the audience of mostly undecided voters, Wunderlich said.

To students, a candidate’s personality is especially important, said Haley Dunnigan, director of public relations for ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government.

ASMSU hosted a watch party Tuesday night at Dublin Square, 327 Abbot Road, at which students could watch the town hall participants ask Obama and Romney questions that likely reflected their own views.

“I think a lot of students are kind of skeptical about a candidate’s answer as far as (it) being pretty planned out,” Dunnigan said.

To see MSU students share their thoughts on the debate, click here.