Obama’s debate showing causes concerns among Democrats

>>> you know, four years ago we were going through a major crisis. and yet, my faith and confidence in the americans' future is undiminished.

>> i'm concerned about the direction america has been taking over the last four years.

>> four years ago i said i'm not a perfect man and i won be a perfect president. that's probably a promise governor romney thinks i kept. i also said i would promise every day on behalf of the american people .

>> there's no question in my mind if the president is elected you'll see a middle class squeeze with incomes going down and prices going up.

>> that was last night's closing statements. we merged them together. it was a microcosm of how the two men handled the night. mitt romney was passionate and energetic. the president was subdued and dispassionate. you called the president last night. said he had a dig any fighted reserve.

>> i think one of the things we look for in our presidents is a consistency. what you have not seen from mitt romney is consistency. you've seen a lot of shape shifting. last night was certainly an elevated performance. among then when he was governor of massachusetts hean had a dismal job creation record but racked up a huge deficit, increased spending. people can criticize one performance or another. i believe over the long term the president is well served by the dignified and reserved position.

>> do you feel as if he made his case for a second term?

>> i think we have 36 days to continue to make the case. i believe that a very good case has been made up to this point. that our better future is ahead of us. it's not behind us. and whatever the stylistic points, do believe one of the things that was very clear last night is these candidates differ in the approach of how to make the economy grow and expand for the middle class . and he subscribed to the theory that greater tax cuts will subscribe for greater deficits. so i thought that was a clear contrast. i thought medicare was a clear contrast. we have two more rounds to go in the debate.

>> on social security there were a lot more liberal watchers and supporters of the president. very upset with how he threw it out there saying we have to do something about it. that's not mainstream opinion in the democratic party .

>> i believe he says we have to tweak it from time to time. indeed we do as population bubbles come and go. i think they're overreacting a little bit. let's be honest here. a lot of people in the democratic party base really wanted to see the president go out and poke him in the eye and tear off his face.

>> i think they want to hear the number 47%. why didn't we hear that?

>> i think that the 47% -- look, i'm not part of the debate strategy. but for the last several weeks everybody is asking how the heck could romney govern the entire country when he's so dismissive of 47% of us and say we're all leeches.

>> you seem a little perplexed that 47% didn't come up.

>> oh, i don't know. i think that what the president needed to do last night was to keep press iing governor romney on the other lack of specifics. once we get over the stylistic reviews and critiques, we have to come back to the point that we're 36 days away tr the election. governor romney put forward the proposal with a magic wand to reduce taxes for the very wealthy among us and yet won't tell us how to pay for it. i think it's remarkable and a test of the discerning members to let him say eat cake, lose weight and trust me behind door number three there's a secret plan that i'll put in place.

>> democratic governor mark o'malley, chairman of the democratic governors association . thanks for getting up early this morning.

>> thank you.