Did Obama surprised you?

[Peeperkorn]

In this debate.

[Lincoln Republican]

No.

Mitt always comes through in the crunch.

[BM]

No. Overrated politician except when working a crowd.

[Wisconsin+17]

No. When has he accomplished anything?

[Politico]

See my signature?

[tmthforu94]

Yes, actually. I'm surprised at how little emotion or passion he showed in the debate.

[Miles]

Yes, but not a in a positive way.

All things considered, I agree with Chris Matthews' assessment the most.

[Hash]

He could/should have been waaaaaay better, but I won't blame him for appearing frustrated and pissed off with Romney, considering that all Romney did was lie, lie and lie.

[BlueSwan]

Yes. I always expected Romney to be the one to gain from the first debate. What I did not expect was Obamas defeatish demeanor. While I do agree with several pundits that Obama let Romney get away with stuff he shouldn't be getting away with, I believe Obamas worst mistakes were stylistically. Style wins elections. Obama looked defeatish and didn't look like he wanted to be there. The number one rule of debating is that you need to look like someone who believes in their own message. He didn't look like that and that is the number one thing he needs to change for the next debates.

[opebo]

Didn't watch it, so I voted 'hurr durr'.

[Vote UKIP!]

He could/should have been waaaaaay better, but I won't blame him for appearing frustrated and pissed off with Romney, considering that all Romney did was lie, lie and lie.

Even if Romney did lie, Obama, since he would know that they were lies, should not have been bothered, really. I may be a naive optimist, but if you know you know the truth, you shouldn't be ticked off by lies about you.

The truth is, Obama was in full form last night, as far as his personality is concerned. He is really a man-child, with a very thin skin. Last night, he demonstrated that by acting peeved and snarky, which is unpresidential by anyone's standards.

The truth is, Obama blew it. If Obama was proud of what he accomplished the past four years, he would have acted like it. He would have been able to field off Romney's attacks with the uttermost confidence of the success of his record. Instead, he came of as an amatuer, at times seeming to look to Lehrer for help.  He couldn't even bring himself to look at the camera for more than 5 seconds, much less stave off Romney.

[J. J.]

Obama managed to reinforce every bad stereotype of himself.

He looked aloof and arrogant.  He looked ideological and partisan.  He looked like an "angry black man," though one without passion.

[sentinel]

Yes, but not a in a positive way.

All things considered, I agree with Chris Matthews' assessment the most.

Totally agree.

Obama managed to reinforce every bad stereotype of himself.

He looked aloof and arrogant.  He looked ideological and partisan.  He looked like an "angry black man," though one without passion.

You had me at the first sentence, and then you lost me. I don't think he was aloof of people's problems, but he was  aloof of the fact that he was even at a debate. You can't be the "angry black guy" if you're not actually being an angry black guy --if anything he was far too complacent with how everything was going.

[Torie]

No, but Mittens did.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Yeah, he was surprisingly bad.

[MATTROSE94]

I was expecting Obama to smoke Romeny in the debate, but he came across as ill-pepared and weak.