Who won the Debate?

[Hoverbored123]

Pertaining to the argument over time limits, both sides have a legitimate case.  Adherence to the rules is important, but it's definitely better to see a substantive debate than for the candidates to simply repeat their previous talking points.  

The consensus seems to be that Romney won the debate.  Although it wasn't a runaway, I'm inclined to agree.  Romney was more aggressive than I was expected, and Obama was surprisingly demure.  He looked tired and tended to look down while Romney was speaking, while Romney stood firmer and straighter.  I'd be interested to see what body language experts have to say in their analysis.  In a sense, he looked and talked like someone who was losing, despite the polls having him even or ahead.  

[Hoverbored123]

I think people are supremely over-stating the greatness of Romney's performance and equally under-stating the disaster that was Obama's. Ironically, it was Obama who had a Windows Vista powered robot-like malfunction. Paraphrasing:

Obama: "Your tax plan cuts taxes by 5$ trillion for the wealthy"

Romney "Untrue. (proceeds to explain how the claim is false)".

Obama: (shaking his head, eyes a million miles away): "Your tax plan cuts taxes for the wealthy by 5$ trillion, how can you do that and reduce the deficit?".

Mitt Romney, to my surprise, was able to deconstruct Obama's strongest talking points with relative ease. I came away with the impression that Obama had not prepared for this debate beyond memorizing a few half-baked talking points and applying them to keywords.

That said; Mitt Romney's performance was mostly safe and when judged on it's own merit rather than in the context of competition with the President's - it was simply an above-average outing, good but not stellar or memorable.

As a Republican, I'm worried that this may have been his Mondale-Reagan moment. The narrative of 1984 was turned on it's head when the wonky, boring Mondale made a fool out of the typically charismatic, well-liked Reagan. Then Reagan got his act together in the second debate and...

In closing, Republicans need to remember that we just witnessed Obama at his worst vs. Romney at his constant. It would be ill advised for Romney to assume that he will be across the stage from the same person in the next debate.

While I'm not so sure Romney's performance was overrated, I do agree that Romney shouldn't get complacent.  Obama will not doubt be more prepared next time, and use a lot less negative body language, but in terms of substantive point-making, Obama is not likely to improve dramatically. 

As for Romney's performance being overstated, I have to disagree.  He answered the president's attacks effectively, made his points clearly, and looked good while he did it.  Admittedly, I missed the first half-hour of the debate, but I thought he did a good job from what I saw, and from what I hear the first half-hour was even better.  I can understand Republicans overselling it, but even Democratic observers gave Romney the win for the night.  I almost couldn't believe this:

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/10/03/californians-watch-as-obama-romney-clash-on-economy-in-1st-debate/

The sample group, which was known to be Democratic-leaning, favored Romney's performance by 14 points!  Admittedly there was a large undecided segment (about 20 percent), but the result is still very good for Romney. 

I'm sure Obama will improve next time, but I'm more worried about the VP debate next Thursday.  Biden is an experienced debater, and will doubtless try to derail Ryan with all manner of tricks.  Then again, Ryan has charisma and a good command of the issues.  I suspect that Biden will try to push him into a corner on abortion or other social issues, but Ryan is smart enough to avoid it if he's prepared properly.  I'll be happy if Ryan makes it out with a draw.