And does it matter?  I've always seen most debates geared towards people who haven't made up their minds yet.  Those who already have will read what they want into the debate.  Winning and losing a debate even last nights has less to do with anything actually said and more to do with the ability to spin it.  Romney has always looked more Presidential.  He's very commanding and assertive.  Given his business background he'd have to be.  Obama has always been more Professor than President. Now it's up to the people to decide who would do the better job and to be honest if everything was based on facts, record and ability neither of these two would have made it this far.

@Greywalker - Exactly Campaigns are directed at the undecided. That is exactly why this debates was so damaging to Obama. No neutral minds left without seeing Obama as the weaker leader. And most people see our nation heading the wrong way. That is a bad combo for our sitting president

And that's not exactly true.  Many neutral people watched and didn't care.  Some watched and saw Romney as overly aggressive.  History shows that these debates seem to only make a big impact when there's some kind of over whelming knock out punch and there wasn't in this one.  Romney comes out being seen as he should have been seen for the past year.  Romney has stabilized his campaign which is great but he still needs to get it moving forward. Romney has managed to get the attention he needed and get people looking at him positively but he needs to use the next two debates to deliver a crushing blow.

@Greywalker - He was tied to start with so I see it as very important. with Obama unable to enter the 50% support level I see him in a lot of trouble. No president has ever won reelection with less support than he had the first time. And Obama very much has less support

It was important for Romney.  I'd just prefer if people didn't treat it as a all encompassing victory.  Mitt still has a ways to go before the White House and overconfidence could kill his campaign.  He won a battle not the war. 

See, I didn't need to watch it. ;) I knew I'd get a recap from somebody. Sounds like they didn't say anything new, so I didn't miss much. 

@RulerofMasons - I am not worried you are only agreed with by 25% of those who saw the debate. 67% saw it as an Romney blowout

@WaitingToShrug - it was good to see Obama get called out on his lies about Romney's tax plans. Obama was left stuttering and just repeating himself without confidence unable to look anyone in the eyes. He was looking down after Romney dressed him down it was bad

Bill Maher said Romney won.  He's as left as they get.  What liberal media sites are you reading??  

@RulerofMasons - Romney was a little lose on the facts according to the fact checkers, but Obama clearly had the more lousy performance.  It was almost like he winged it.  I guess Libya and Egypt are weighing on him...

@davidian - I like it that he let it run away. http://www.democraticunderground.com/  these guys are losing it today i need to say i am enjoying it

@davidian - I am goig to go over the fact checking thing. Romney was mostly off on health care. Obama was flat out lying about romeny's taxe plan

I agree. Don't listen so much to what the partisans are saying. Partisans are going to say their guy won no matter what. Listen to who's angry, or complaining about the moderator, or claiming the polls won' t move much, or (just saw this about an hour ago on Twitter) that their guy actually planned on throwing the debate as part of some master plan. Denial, anger and bargaining: those are the first three stages of grief.

@Greywalker - After last night it's looking more and more that a vote for Obama is a vote stuck on stupid.

@davidian - Here's Bill Maher:

@PrisonerxOfxLove - People tend not to see themselves as stupid regardless of how they vote.  How many people sang Obama's praises before he was elected because he was going to close Gitmo.  Everyone knew he wasn't going to close.  He doesn't have the ability to just close it.  Anyone who voted for him mainly for that reason could be seen as stupid.  That being said when it wasn't closed how many of those same people ignored that fact and kept singing his praises?  They will make themselves believe whatever narrative they want.  Let's be real. Obama didn't come off as glowing in his debates with McCain either.  Romney being seen as the intelligent alternative only works if people see Romney as intelligent.  His position publicly is tenuous at best.  Today is the post debate hype phase. The real effects of the debate will be seen Monday.

Yeah, I guess you nailed it. 

@Greywalker - If Obama looks stupid and Romney looks smart, rational people will chose Romney.  It's that simple regardless of your excuses.

@PrisonerxOfxLove - There are multiple problems with that comment.   First the use of the word "looks" That is a point of view.  Many can be easily swayed and made to see something different.  The process of campaigning is getting people to believe a specific narrative and whoever does that the best wins.  

@Greywalker - Gitmo is a military prison. Therefore the president has total say so.

@PrisonerxOfxLove - Military bases still have procedures for closing them.  The rules are different but still exist.

@Greywalker - Liberals are experts at process. That's yet another reason why Obama has no excuse for not shutting down Gitmo.

@PrisonerxOfxLove - OK.  Thank you for your time

@trunthepaige - Actually, that's not true.  Obama wasn't flat out lying.  There is a lot of truth in what he said, although it's not such a simple issue.  Romney has proposed lowering income tax rates, getting rid of the estate tax, and etc. that the non-partisan Tax Policy Center estimates will cost about $480 billion over 10 years.  

That's about $5 trillion dollars worth of tax cuts spread over a 10 year period starting 2015.  That's where the $5 trillion figure came from.  So yes, it's not a $5 trillion tax cut.  But it is a tax policy that will cause a deficit of $5 trillion in tax revenue over 10 years.  

Now there's nothing wrong with tax cuts like that and President Bush made a lot of similar tax cuts which Obama renewed.  The issue is with mounting deficits, Romney would have to make up for the lost tax revenue and the Tax Policy Center estimates that Romney would not be able to make up the difference from just closing loopholes.  He would have to broaden the tax base in order to not add to the deficit.