Debate Take 2

++Let's be frank--that was President Obama's worst performance in his political career. The Obama we have come to know showed up today at his first rally after the debate to Talk about meeting a different Mitt Romney than the one that has been campaigning for a year.

++We don't know the effects of Obama's loss in the debate on the race yet. Republican Rasmussen's tracking poll had only some post-debate respondents and it has Obama at 49 to 47. The Rand group shows that Romney gained two points and now it is 49 to 45. Intratrade after the debate went up for Obama. Gallup's approval rating for Obama today leaped to 54, the highest since April 2009.

++The Chicago Sun-Times called it that Romney won on style and Obama on substance. The editorial laid out in great specificity the misstatements and lies by Romney and Obama's more sensible solutions.

++By morning the Obama ad had generated a series of ads about how can you trust Romney and ads showing the media fact-checkers catching him in lies. A poll of Western states prior to the debate revealed that people were not looking for answers on the economy but who could they trust. The Romney performance generated more comments on bullying,disrespect and lying than any debate I've watched over the years. David Gergen finally legitimized talking about Romney's habit of lying when he said "He flat-out lied."Steve Benen has been spending almost the last year trying to make people listen to this. Gergen finally made it acceptable to talk openly about it.

++Random notes from last night:

--Pro Obama Superpac had a focus group of former Obama supporters who now favor Romney and independents. 6 in 10 were favorable to Obama's performance and only 1 in 7 to Romney. 8 in 10 gave Obama high marks for favorability, few gave the same to Romney. 63% said Obama had good ideas about the economy while 27% said the same about Romney.

++In a similar group of undecideds by one network--of 38 undecideds , 16 made up their minds--8 for Romney and 8 for Obama. 

++Even though women's issues were not discussed in the debate, Obama's closing arguments led to an upsurge of women's positive reactions; Romney's closing argument resulted in a flat-line. Throughout the debate , whenever Obama spoke women's approvals went up, while men's went down.

++There are only 5% undecided left in the election. Paul Begala stated that there is an actual number--near 960,000+ left in Swing States.

++One blogger noted that his father, who is my age, commented that Romney needed a knockout but "All we remember is he wants to kill Big Bird."

++Did Romney close the deal like a good car salesman? He acted like a marketing manager changing his sales pitch until you buy. No he didn't.

++Think Progress has a good piece by Ivan Volsky on  27 myths Romney told in 38 minutes.

++For fans of Canada, CBC reported that 76% of Canadians believe Obama won.

++Al Jazeera said that Obama had the edge and that Romney was aggressive,maybe too aggressive.

++Yahoo, with 9,000 votes, had Romney winning 54% to 46%.

++While Romney gained in the empathy category,CBS poll had Obama hitting 69% said that Obama cared about their needs up from 53%.

++NBC found that 32% were more likely to vote for Romney and 23% for Obama with 45% saying no change.

++Among CNN uncommitted--46% favored Romney, 22% Obama and 32% thought it was a draw.

++CBS had 46 say Romney won, 22 Obama, and 32 said it was a tie.

++Google has two polls. The first showed it Obama 38.8%, Romney 35.5% and a tie 25.7%. The second poll had it Romney 47.8% and 22 Obama and 32 tied. 

++I don't know about you but I found Romney sweating, hyperventilating and bug-eyed, while others said he was calm and articulate. 

++My advice to Obama is to bring your A game next time and make sure you answer everyone of Romney's likes on foreign policy.