It's amusing to listen to the Left coming down so hard on the moderator. Yeah, that was the problem.

Romney was greatly helped by the fact that a debate calls for a cooler demeanor. He can come across as rather annoying in his stump speeches when he tries to force certain inflections and it comes out whiny. The calmness of last night's circumstances benefited him by making him stay in his comfort zone. He was cool and cerebral, which is supposed to be the president's thing

Speaking of Mr. Obama, he looked older than Romney. I guess even the Chosen One ages in that job.

Everyone else in my household detests politics with a great passion, and I'm swamped at work (and very grateful to have this blog as a stress reliever), so I can't give my own reaction. But I did want to say, G, that your title made me think this post would be about abortion-inducing drugs.

Hmmmmm - but your humor can be very subtle; maybe you're hinting that the Obama Campaign *wishes* it had a "morning-after pill" for debates, right now . . .? ;-)

It wasn't a bloodbath. That would imply that Romney took an excessively violent approach, went for the kill, etc. What he did instead was to maintain appropriate dignity and confidence, and to press home a clear message.

Obama's defeat was Obama's.

The President could have pulled out his own big guns: Bain, 47%, etc., but I don't think he would have done any better with that approach. Romney would have stuck to the issues, which is what he did last night, and Obama would have looked even less presidential.

So as I've said elsewhere, only partly tongue-in-cheek: the President actually did okay. That is, he did about as well as we could expect, given what he had to work with: his record.

That was the impression my mom and dad got.