Fair enough; that seems to be the pundit consensus at the moment, although I also tend to ignore pundits. I guess Romney didn't come off as polished to me because I already knew a few of his statements were either partly or entirely incorrect (which was true for Obama, too). I do think Romney came out ahead, just not by much. We'll see when new poll numbers come out.

When you've lost the Koreans....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=iNhUI8ktHuw

I only got through 30 minutes of the debate before turning it off. In what I saw, Romney controlled the debate and Obama was too conciliatory from the outset. It was a bizarre showing from Obama; a Presidential debate isn't exactly the place to try and find middle ground.

Romney's strategy was a brilliant one, essentially forcing Obama to call him a liar in order to get any traction, which Obama is too civil and not fiesty enough to do. It'll strengthen Romney's support with the base (who like seeing "Zero" shown up) and may confuse some undecideds. The real tell will be the next Presidential debate -- will Romney's handlers keep him on top with another zig-zag, or will Obama get on the boards when Obama comes out stronger and fiercer in response to this debate?

Again, punditry is punditry. I'm not convinced by it, and I want to wait and see the polls.

Well, I read the polls during the day today. I caught some of the reactions from various sources last night. The reactions on this forum are the first I've seen from anyone that think Romney did anything less than trounce Obama. A quick poll can be seen at CNN. But it's interesting seeing the reactions of Chris Matthews ("I don't know what he was doing out there, he was enduring the debate rather than fighting it"), and even the Washington Post goes in to explain why Romney won.

As for the Ryan/Biden debate? Yah, that'll be entertaining to watch. Ryan showed himself to be an eloquent, charismatic speaker when he accepted the VP nomination. Biden, well... he's kinda been the comic relief for the last four years. Agree with Ryan or not, it will be... well, I'll have the beer and chips out, no doubt about it.

Romeny's victory over the debate is not in question- he trounced Obama. what remains to be seen is teh effect on the election, and between fact checking and future debates this may have been a matter of Romney stockpiling rope to hang himself.

Obama's a terrible speaker when he doesn't have a teleprompter to read from. I'm not at all surprised Romney came off looking better - I'm pretty sure most anyone here could do the same.

CNN's poll numbers only include white males from the south, so the numbers aren't very surprising.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2012/1...y-pre.html?m=1

And, once again, I DON'T BELIEVE THE PUNDITS. They are entitled to their opinions, as am I, but posting more pundits in support of other pundits ain't gonna change mah mind. Given the massive outlash against Romney's "Big Bird" comments, I'd say the pundits could be doing what they usually do - blowing smoke out their butts.

Just going to have to agree with this. I watched the debate and Obama came off as unprepared, tired, and wishing he was somewhere else. Maybe there is some truth to the pundit excuses that he was just coasting along because its been years since his last debate compared to Romney. If so we can expect him to show up in the 2nd debate.

I wish I could find another set of polls that I saw, showing the people of LA figuring Romney won as well. It's possible CNN is in a conspiracy to show Romney won the poll, because they really want to see a republican in office. I just don't buy it though. Maybe those are the only people left with land lines without caller ID?

As for the Big Bird remark... I've seen no blow back from that. I mean, no blow back that actually matters. Yah, I've seen a couple memes on facebook about it, but mostly because people find it funny. I just don't see the people going to the ballot box on the 6th making their decision based off of Romney cutting funding to PBS. Of course, in the end, there's only one poll that matters, and that's on election day itself, but it's much more fun to try to read the crystal balls over the next month instead of just twiddling our thumbs!