Calm down everyone.

[Oakvale]

I saw the debate last night - Romney was well-prepared, Obama clearly didn't want to be there - can't blame him, mind, it was his anniversary - and it's pretty clear that Romney "won".

More to the point, the media's been itching to move on from the stale "Romney's finished!" narrative and on to a much more exciting "it's a close race now!" one - even if Romney hadn't turned in a better performance, just holding his own on stage with the President would give him a decent bump and some favourable news cycles.

The debate was "do or die" for Romney, and he saved his campaign, but let's not act as if this is some amazing game changer. If Romney had lost the debate, he'd be finished, as is he's still in the race. That's undeniably good news for Romney, but I don't think it changes the fundamental picture of the election.

Republicans and Democrats, relax. Republicans - Romney had a polished performance, but didn't have any "Reaganesque" quips, and, Democrats -  Obama had a flat performance, but didn't make any gaffes and didn't lose any voters.

I'm rambling a bit, but I can't really handle the chaos around here today.

2012 board after the debate:

[Oakvale]

I haven't seen people overreact this much to a single ultimately irrelevant event since Sarah Palin was picked as McCain's running mate.

[Oakvale]

McCain unleashing Sarah Palin certainly was relevant, just in ways we could have never imagined when he picked her.

Heh, fair point. I think I'm going to tune out politics until the dust settles.

[Oakvale]

Why is this stickied?

Yeah, seriously. This has absolutely no right to be stickied, not any more than some random "Romney's ahead now!" post would be. Can a mod bring the down the Professionalism Hammer on this one?

As to the point, yeah, it's true that this isn't revolutionary, but the comparative performances were a great surprise in one of three often very important events. I'm not terribly surprised that a 2012 election board hence has a lot to say about it.

It's absolutely absurd that this is stickied.

lol

[Oakvale]

I support this thread being stickied solely on account of the thread title, which should apply always on this board.

The common emotion of the Mittens pack around here is probably one more of relief than excitement. So there is no reason to calm down on our side. We are calm ... cool as a cucumber. Cheers.

I think that's the more reasonable reaction, but I daresay you're not the typical Romney supporter... at least on here.

My whole point here was that Mitt saved his campaign, which is (obviously) good news, but it's not like he turned the election around dramatically.

[Oakvale]

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Can we panic now?

Not until we see the ARG and Zogby numbers to complement those.

[Oakvale]