CNN's Wolf Blitzer will moderate the next presidential debate on Monday, Oct. 22. (Photo from React Labs)

By Eric Stock

NORMAL - College students across the country, including a class at Illinois State University gave the nod to President Obama in Tuesday night's debate.

Politics and government professor Carl Palmer said more than 2,300 students who provided instant feedback on an education website gave Obama the edge over Romney 70 percent to 22 percent with eight percent undecided. The student body was 50 percent to 30 percent Democratic over Republican.

"Obama's high point was at the very beginning of the debate when he was pointing out what he called Romney's plan to have the folks at the top play by a different set of rules," Palmer said.

He said Obama's lowest mark came in response to a question about what he has done to deserve reelection. The president said he wasn't successful in everything he had hoped to accomplish, but that he needed a second term to see those things to completion.

Palmer said students have Mitt Romney the lowest marks for his answer on gun control, which also gave him his highest number of positive remarks. He said he got pro- and anti-gun advocates to come to together on gun control legislation while he was governor of Massachusetts.

Palmer said students seemed less interested in pocket-book issues such as gas prices and more sensitive to issues such as gun control and Libya.

Palmer said Romney made a misstep in the way he tried to explain how he added more women to his cabinet when he was governor of Massachusetts.

"Instead of painting himself as an advocate for women, it seemed almost a little bit patronizing that he was just describing, 'I have a binder, I'm just going to put these women in a binder and (my advisors) are going to pick from that," Palmer said.

Palmer said students who took part in a survey for the vice-presidential debate last week gave Democrat Joe Biden the win over Republican Paul Ryan 57 percent to 33 percent.

You can hear the interview on the podcast page at www.wjbc.com.

Eric Stock can be reached at eric.stock@cumulus.com.