Okay, I sat through the whole thing and not once drifted off to sleep. Amazing how Obama doesn't do so well when he doesn't have a teleprompter.
Romney was polished. Obama played it safe. To me, the best part about the debate was how Romney realized he had come to discuss points and counterpoints with President Obama. He continuously kept his focus on the man he was trying to best in a one on one contest. Obama, on the other hand, was looking down, smirking, frowning, and on two or three occasions looked directly into the camera to plead his case as if he were on a campaign stop somewhere.
In so doing, Obama clearly lost on body language alone.
Romney never answered Obama's charges with one swing. He came back with at least three and sometimes five. He did not allow Obama or Lehrer to run over him, and he was gracious enough to let Obama speak for 42 minutes while Romney spoke for 32 minutes. Even with the ten extra minutes, Obama failed to be succinct in wrapping up his talking points, he was hesitant looking for the right words and while pressing Romney for specifics, he was woefully lacking with his own.
This was a clear win for Romney and Obama has to go back to the drawing board. He acted like a man who was trying to keep his lead instead of slam dunking his opponent. I believe we will not see so passive a man in the next debate.
Romney 1 Obama 0. It was that clear.