Who won the Debate?

[Likely Voter]

Romney won, race will tighten to Obama +1.5 by the next debate.

[Tender Branson]

Romney won by about 2:1 in football terms.

But Obama will probably do better in the 2nd and 3rd debate and fully attack Romney.

[GLPman]

Mitt won. I had higher expectations for Obama, to be honest, but he didn't really gain traction until the final 30 mins.

[President Marokai]

Romney won on the theater but it was one of the most unbelievably dishonest performances I've seen. The problem for Obama is that it's virtually impossible to pin Romney down and attack him on anything. Romney's established his ability and willingness to change his position entirely on a dime, as many times as it takes, depending on wherever he's speaking.

All Romney has to do is say "No, that's not my position" and Obama can do nothing about it in a debate setting without looking petty; there's no way to prove it even though you can immediately show Romney is an outright liar as soon as the debate is over with video of his previous statements and policy positions. It's impossible to debate jello, and that was Obama's problem.

[♀ Komrade Feminazi Kitteh ♀]

Romney. Obama was constantly on the defense, and Mitt looked more comfortable and delivered his lines more clearly. It wasn't a landslide, though. I don't think it will be a game changer, but it will definitely halt any momentum Obama has and possibly give Romney a small bounce in the polls.

[All life is a blur of Republicans and meat.]

Big Obama win for me personally.

For audiences, probably a narrow Obama win.

For MSM, a solid Romney win (which they have to hope will allow them to keep the race going).

[Jayhawker]

This debate does two important things for Romney, neither necessarily being swaying swing voters.

1. It'll give Romney positive news for the next few days, which he needs after a couple bad weeks.
2. It has Republicans excited once again about the election, something that didn't really happen with the convention.

For those two, Romney is the clear winner.

[J. J.]

Romney won by about 2:1 in football terms.

But Obama will probably do better in the 2nd and 3rd debate and fully attack Romney.

Every time Obama tried to attack, his numbers went down.

[ShadowOfTheWave]

Romney won, better stage presence and whatnot, as others have stated. I think Obama won the closing statements though, he made a passionate plea for his re-election, while I thought Romney went through all his points too quickly.

[Lieutenant Governor Clinton1996]

I think obama won the first half hour though Mitt won the entire thing. Isn't the first half hour the most important.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Hate to tell you folks this, but a CNN poll already shows that most viewers felt Obama won. Romney only seems to win in the minds of political junkies like us.

Obama seemed above the fray, while Romney came across as a spoiled, rambling loser.

[All life is a blur of Republicans and meat.]

I think obama won the first half hour though Mitt won the entire thing. Isn't the first half hour the most important.

Obama dominated the first half or so. Then he started to become fairly listless which allowed Mitt to take over.

[pepper11]

Van Jones: Romney connected.

[Keystone Phil]

I love the "In Soccer terms..." comments. I'd say 3-1 or 4-1.

[¡Cuatro años más!]

Hate to tell you folks this, but a CNN poll already shows that most viewers felt Obama won. Romney only seems to win in the minds of political junkies like us.

Obama seemed above the fray, while Romney came across as a spoiled, rambling loser.

Sometimes you have to be honest with yourself bandit. Even James Carville says Obama was off tonight.

[RogueBeaver]

Cutter said Romney won on style/prep. Hell, even Chris Matthews said Romney won.

[AmericanNation]

Romney won by about 2:1 in football terms.

But Obama will probably do better in the 2nd and 3rd debate and fully attack Romney.

Every time Obama tried to attack, his numbers went down.

Exactly, Obama was terrible on offense against Romney.  Not surprisingly he's never been challenged on the straw mans he campaigns with, so Romney gained yardage every time Obama tried to run a play.  If this was football, Obama got shut out; he scored zero points, and probably had negative yards.  Romney was a very smooth machine that produced first down after first down.  

[All life is a blur of Republicans and meat.]

Hate to tell you folks this, but a CNN poll already shows that most viewers felt Obama won. Romney only seems to win in the minds of political junkies like us.

Obama seemed above the fray, while Romney came across as a spoiled, rambling loser.

I knew Obama would win the instapoll! Did you see the %?

[krazen1211]

Dominating.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Sometimes you have to be honest with yourself bandit. Even James Carville says Obama was off tonight.

The pundits don't get to decide that.

[Governor Scott]

Hate to tell you folks this, but a CNN poll already shows that most viewers felt Obama won. Romney only seems to win in the minds of political junkies like us.

Obama seemed above the fray, while Romney came across as a spoiled, rambling loser.

Where are you getting these early numbers?  I don't see them showing any.

[Lieutenant Governor Clinton1996]

Hate to tell you folks this, but a CNN poll already shows that most viewers felt Obama won. Romney only seems to win in the minds of political junkies like us.

Obama seemed above the fray, while Romney came across as a spoiled, rambling loser.

Where? I'm watching and they haven't reported it yet.

[Likely Voter]

link to cnn poll?

[All life is a blur of Republicans and meat.]

Hate to tell you folks this, but a CNN poll already shows that most viewers felt Obama won. Romney only seems to win in the minds of political junkies like us.

Obama seemed above the fray, while Romney came across as a spoiled, rambling loser.

Sometimes you have to be honest with yourself bandit. Even James Carville says Obama was off tonight.

Obama was definitely off his game in the second half but do keep in mind that Carville is a Clinton diehard and clearly hates Obama as a person.

[Mynheer Peeperkorn von Thurn und Taxis-Hohenlohe]

I love the "In Soccer terms..." comments. I'd say 3-1 or 4-1.

That's my boy.

The Austrian thinks it was 3-2 but well, what Austrians know about football?

It was a 4-1,