( CNN ) -- President Obama 's Ambien finally wore off , and thus he began the second presidential debate with Mitt Romney . Obama 's performance Tuesday night was stellar ( but not perfect ) because of two techniques that I push to my debate teams ad nauseam . The first is the primacy effect , and the second is using your opponent 's language against him . If you want to win a debate , you 've got to master these techniques . The primacy effect is the idea that the first things a speaker says are more persuasive than those that follow . It holds true in conversations , in 90-minute debates , and even over a series of speeches or debates . Obama came out strong . He lacked passion in the previous debate , but when answering the first question from the audience Tuesday night , Obama brought the heat . Early on he said Romney did n't have a five-point economic plan , but `` a one-point plan '' -- that `` folks at the top play by a different set of rules . '' Right away we knew this was a different Obama . Yeah , I know , everyone 's probably talking about that comment because it 's a good sound bite . But for me , it 's the primacy effect taking off . I teach my debaters that you 've got to make your best arguments early in the speech . Otherwise you might not have the judge 's full attention when you get to your best arguments , thereby lessening the weight of your position . Opinion roundup : Obama bounces back , dominates debate . I guarantee you this one answer -- the `` one-point plan '' -- will be talked about more than any other ( aside from that silly `` binders full of women '' distraction ) , partially because the president was memorable here , but mostly because of the primacy effect . The second debating concept I preach is the importance of language choices . If a team I coached ever concluded a debate without using their opponents ' language against them , I 'd want to make them run laps . ( OK , that 's a terrible idea -- picture in your mind a debate team running laps . ) Obama used Romney 's language against him time and time again , and it was effective . Here are some examples of Obama quoting Romney . `` This plant kills '' ( from a Romney quote illustrating his flip-flop on coal plants ) ; Romney 's assertion that promoting a lower tax rate for the most wealthy Americans `` grows the economy ; '' `` I 'll get back to you on that , '' his spokesman 's initial response on Romney 's stance on the Lilly Ledbetter bill , which makes it easier for women who have been discriminated against over equal pay to sue employers . Debaters ca n't easily get out of arguments when you quote their own words . It 's a timeless , winning strategy . Opinion : How Obama aced comeback . Moving further forward in the debate , Romney used the same technique responding to the sixth question , when asked what the president had done or accomplished to earn our vote . Unemployment , Medicare , Social Security and immigration were all subtopics that Romney used when answering this particular question . And he began each of these issues with the phrase `` He said ... '' when referring to Obama . He followed this by reminding the audience of Obama 's perceived shortcomings on these issues . It was Romney 's best moment of the debate . Unfortunately , it came almost an hour into it . In fact , it took Romney almost an hour until he had a clearly favorable exchange . That 's too long . Because of the primacy effect , undecided voters wo n't likely remember the stuff in the middle of the debate as much as the points at the beginning . It 's good for Romney that this was n't the first debate , because Obama 's performance was much stronger Tuesday night . The primacy effect over these two debates might have just saved Romney . I expect the president to get a bump in the polls from this debate , but it could have been worse for Romney . Think about it : If we simply reversed the order of the debates , the race for president would look very different right now . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Todd Graham .
Todd Graham : Obama revived himself and gave a stellar ( but not perfect ) debate performance . He says Obama used `` primacy effect '' technique to be most persuasive first thing in debate . He says Obama also used Romney 's own words against him , a timeless , winning strategy . Graham : Romney used that technique too , but late in debate ; lost valuable time in waiting .