Obama Took Da' Bait. Romney Took the Debate.

A few thoughts on the debate:

• It was a stunning victory for Gov. Romney.  A lot of the credit for that goes to President Obama, who seemed incredibly unprepared for this debate.
• There were three losers at the debate:  President Obama, Jim Lehrer, and Big Bird.
• If I had any complaint about Romney's performance, it would be that he made a lot of concessions to move to the center, saying things which I am sure he said in order to give the perception that he was not going to be excessively hard on the President.
• You know that the President lost the debate when even the liberal cable networks are mad at the President for not taking it to Romney.
• After Bush lost his first debate several years ago, it took an excellent performance by VP Cheney to help him come back.  This time, President Obama has to count on VP Biden to make such a performance against Ryan.  I think his chances of doing so are quite slim.
• No matter how great Romney's performance was, the only ones who are going to possibly change their minds because of it are the few independents there are out there.  It probably will not be a large factor in the race.
• Chris Matthews had a meltdown on MSNBC after the debate.  His tingle became a palpitation.  You could almost see the steam coming out of his ears.
• I would be interested to hear what an expert in body language has to say about the two candidates last night.  To me, Romney oozed confidence, and Obama seemed nervous and overwhelmed.
• Despite Romney giving the President what I would describe as a butt-kicking last night, he also still managed to give the impression that he was doing it respectfully.  That is not easy to do.
• I found it outrageous that the President hammered on banks that gave out loans to unqualified people when, as community organizer, he was involved in threatening to sue banks if they did not approve loans to lower income families that fit into that category.  And when he said words to the effect that budgets matter, I burst out laughing.