Romney Campaign not expecting to win debates.

[ajb]

This is a slightly awkward moment for the Romney campaign. On the one hand, they need to engage in the traditional pre-debate lowering of expectations, so that they can claim victory after the first debate.
On the other hand, they're also trying to insist that it's not too late to turn the campaign around, and that the debates will be when they begin to do that (just like, previously, it was the convention, or the Ryan nomination, and Romney clinching his own nomination).
The two messages sit awkwardly together, but their hope is clearly that Romney will do well enough in the first debate that they can declare victory, at which point the two messages are reconciled.
The trouble is, that much as the media love to hype the impact of debates beforehand, their single favorite post-debate cliche is "there was no knockout punch here." That, and "a tie goes to the guy who's ahead."
The bar, in other words, is actually very high now for Romney. Doing slightly better than Obama, or landing a few punches, won't be nearly enough.

[ajb]

Michelle Cottle on how the Romney campaign has blown the debate expectations game.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/28/the-debate-expectations-game.html