A sampling of local residents who watched Wednesday’s presidential debate had several things in common – a majority thought Mitt Romney had the better night, many questioned whether either candidate could fulfill his promises, and none of them said the debate changed their mind.

Exactly half of the 46 people asked by the Dayton Daily News said they watched the debate between Romney and President Barack Obama.

Mike Muenchenbach of Eaton said he’s not a Romney supporter, but he thought Romney had better answers Wednesday and handled the pressure better.

“Obama had every opportunity to come back and score points on some of things that were said, but he didn’t do that,” Muenchenbach said. “He stayed very calm, and that’s fine, but in a debate, that doesn’t work. … There was nothing on the “47 percent” tape, and he didn’t really call Romney out on the tax cuts.”

Tim Kator of Kettering thought Obama did win a point on Medicare spending.

“Romney gave some facts, and Obama came back and kind of obliterated his facts, so I thought that was important,” Kator said. “One of them’s trying to say you’re going to take away $716 billion when really he’s not. One guy’s trying to mislead the public.”

Several local debate watchers brought up the issue of truthfulness Thursday, at the same time that fact-checkers were buzzing with accusations against both sides.

“They spout off all these facts and you don’t really know if they’re true or not – these numbers,” said Jessica Bertolo of Dayton. “They say if Obama’s elected, all of these things will happen. Well no one can predict the future, so that’s kind of frustrating.”

Jennifer Brewer of Kettering said people should just look at the struggles the nation has already had under Obama.

“President Obama looked very confused,” she said. “Mitt Romney looked like the one who had been president and Obama looked like the one who was running for president.”

Randy Brown of Xenia and Robert Woodall of Kettering both thought Romney was impressive, but both still favor Obama. Brown said control of Congress will be just as important in deciding what happens to the country. Woodall said who wins the presidency will only make a small difference.

“I think Obama’s more people-oriented, where Romney is a businessman and he doesn’t mind sacrificing people to get that dollar,” Woodall said. “I think sometimes when you get to making a lot of money, you forget about the normal people.”

Laquatta Brown of Trotwood said Obama needs time to solve problems he inherited from the Bush administration. She was one of a handful of people who said religion is a key concern.

“Whoever is elected needs to put God in their plan,” she said. “We’ve taken God out of schools and everything else, and I think that’s part of this country’s problem.”

Ben Felton of West Carrollton said Romney successfully jabbed Obama all night, but he questioned whether either man can turn around the economy the way they propose.

“I think the economy’s dependent on the market,” he said. “They can influence it a little bit, but whatever’s going to happen is going to happen.”

Frank Winslow of Washington Twp. said he was happily surprised to see Romney win the night. He was glad Romney didn’t back away from his Massachusetts health care plan.

“I thought Romney was well rehearsed, with a lot more details than he had been giving – and he hadn’t been giving a lot,” he said. “I thought he was a lot stronger without being rude and offensive, which they sometimes get.”

But like Felton, Winslow was realistic about his expectations.

“I don’t think presidents have near the influence and power that people think they do,” Winslow said. “I don’t think either (jobs) plan is probably going to be very effective. I think the private sector will eventually bring back the jobs.”

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