The big news is that Mitt was wonderfully prepared, full of specifics, eloquent in a plainspoken way, and struck exactly the right confidently yet calmly aggressive tone. Many Americans might have said, for the first time: You know, that guy would be a really good president. He certainly seemed to know the issues better than the president.
Obama, the bigger news is, was almost incredibly weak: Inarticulate, didn’t play the Bain or 47% cards, and pretty much seemed distracted and ticked off that someone would talk to him like that—nobody had talked to him like that for four years. Seemed like he really does need the teleprompter to speak in clear paragraphs. Even his final statement was flat and empty.
Romney was weakest on ObamaCare, but Obama didn’t exploit the RomneyCare similarity with any effectiveness.
Romney could easily have been better but was still good on entitlements, the Declaration/Constitution, and the point of cutting tax rates. He still needs to be schooled by Pete, but he was reliably impressive in his own way. The job creation thing worked for him, because he finally had pithy explanations.
Obama didn’t have the guts even to try to answer Romney on wasting $90 billion on Green Energy “losers.”
Obvious spin: Romney much better than his campaign. Obama much worse.
Another possible spin: Romney was shrewd to save his best for the campaign’s last month.
All we pomocons apologize, of course, for misunderestimating Mitt. I exempt Mr. Ceaser here, of course.
Downer point being pushed by CNN: The electoral college challenge remains between daunting and hopeless for Romney.
Encouraging news: This is the first actual victory for a Republican candidate in a debate since Reagan over Carter in 1980.
Best joke so far—from Dennis Miller: Obama better hope his kicked ass is covered under ObamaCare.
Telling comment from focus group: Up until tonight, the Obama campaign defined Romney. Tonight, Romney defined himself.
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