I think Obama could have done better, but he apparently decided not to (or was advised not to) challenge Romney's misrepresentations, and failed to hammer hard enough on the fact that Obamacare is (a) a Republican plan; and (b) exactly the same as Romneycare, which is doing very well in Massachusetts.
He also looked tired and unengaged. Hopefully he'll step it up for the next one.
Romney will get a slight bounce but it won't matter.
This will be my new mantra. Which I will eventually shorten to my favorite movie cheer:
It just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter....
smonster,
I'm going to search my timeline to make sure I have that right.
He also looked tired and unengaged.
I thought so, too. But I also think the debates won't end up swaying any voters, so I'm staying hopeful. And refreshing 538 a lot.
I wish Sullivan would get over his race shit. It would help his writing enormously.
Oh yeah. And his women shit.
I read somewhere today that the challenger tends to have the advantage in the first debate. Hopefully that was the case here.
It does seem like the incumbent has a disadvantage in that he's busy trying to run the country on top of campaigning, while the challenger can spend that "run the country" time in debate prep.
I heard that Obama was in a NATO meeting all day. Is this true?
I read that on the Huff Post's debate blog.
eta: About Syria and Turkey.
Can a debate tank an election? I haven't been able to watch it yet, and people appear to be in mourning.