memeorandum: Debate Ratings: Fox News Tops Cable News For First Debate, As More People Tune In Than 2008 (Alex Weprin/TVNewser)

5:05 PM ET, October 4, 2012

Top Items:

Zeke Miller / BuzzFeed:

Obama Campaign Shifts Attack Strategy After Debate — They've been attacking “severely conservative” Mitt for months. Now they're calling Romney a flip-flopper. — Image by Kevin Lamarque / Reuters — DENVER — President Barack Obama and his aides rapidly reversed …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Hot Air, New York Times, p m carpenter's commentary, Marbury, KDVR.com, Riehl World News, The Daily Caller and Vodkapundit

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

Romney's Successful Debate Plan: Lying — Political reporters and pundits lean heavily on the horse race method of coverage, which has badly hurt Mitt Romney for most of the campaign. Last night it helped him. Romney was forceful and articulate and dodged his association with almost all the most unpopular aspects of his platform.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Maddow Blog, his vorpal sword, The Democratic Daily, p m carpenter's commentary, Ross Douthat, Sky Dancing, Los Angeles Times and The Hinterland Gazette

Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:

Top Romney Adviser: States Will Have To Cover People With Pre-Existing Conditions Under President Romney — After the first presidential debate at the University of Denver in Colorado on Wednesday night, one of Mitt Romney's top advisers acknowledged that, as a result Romney's plan to repeal Obamacare …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Beach Peanuts, Election 2012, Daily Kos, The New Republic, The Demos Blog, Washington Monthly, The Maddow Blog, Taylor Marsh, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, AMERICAblog and Blue Mass Group

Politico:

How Obama's debate strategy bombed — DENVER - A stunned Obama campaign acknowledged Thursday that President Barack Obama delivered a lackluster and even ineffectual performance in his leadoff debate against Mitt Romney, mistakenly opting for a cautious approach to handling his opponent …

Discussion: CNN, NBC Latino and Scared Monkeys

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

At Last Night's Debate: Romney Told 27 Myths In 38 Minutes — Pundits from both sides of the aisle have lauded Mitt Romney's strong debate performance, praising his preparedness and ability to challenge President Obama's policies and accomplishments. But Romney only accomplished this goal by repeatedly misleading viewers.

Discussion: CNN, Smart Politics, Fox News, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Associated Press, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, The Raw Story and Reuters

Paul Krugman:

Romney's Sick Joke — OK, so Obama did a terrible job in the debate, and Romney did well. But in the end, this isn't or shouldn't be about theater criticism, it should be about substance. And the fact is that everything Obama said was basically true, while much of what Romney …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Princeton Election Consortium, Firedoglake, Balloon Juice and Talking Points Memo

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Live-Blogging The First Presidential Debate 2012 — 10.31 pm. Look: you know how much I love the guy, and you know how much of a high information viewer I am, and I can see the logic of some of Obama's meandering, weak, professorial arguments. But this was a disaster for the president …

Amie Parnes / The Hill:

Obama campaign: Adjustments will be made in strategy following dismal debate — Adjustments will have to be made in President Obama's debate strategy, his advisers said Thursday, the morning after the president stumbled in his first showdown with Mitt Romney.

Discussion: Politico and Weasel Zippers

Jackie Koszczuk / NationalJournal.com:

Liberals Livid With Obama's Debate Performance — How bad was it for Obama Wednesday night? Even some of his biggest fans were livid that he let Mitt Romney walk away with a win, and they were not suffering in silence. — Within an hour of the debate ending, liberals and longtime Democratic operatives …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Washington Monthly, GOP 12, The Impolitic, Politico, The Huffington Post, americanthinker.com and Scared Monkeys

David Corn / Mother Jones:

Why Obama Didn't Mention the 47 Percent Video — After the first presidential debate in Denver—which an on-the-attack Mitt Romney seemed to exploit better than a noncombative President Barack Obama—at least one question loomed: Why had the president not once referred to the 47 percent video …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Business Insider, No More Mister Nice Blog and Talking Points Memo

CNN:
That was fast: Romney debate remarks in new Obama ad

Discussion: GOP 12 and Politifact.com Truth …

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Polls Show a Strong Debate for Romney

Discussion: First Read, Reuters, The New Republic, The Monkey Cage, Guardian, CBS News, Wonkblog, Mr. Media Training, Washington Post, Taegan Goddard's …, CNN, AMERICAblog, The Daily Beast, The Fix, The Agonist, No More Mister Nice Blog and Ballot Box

Rolling Stone:
The First Debate: Mitt Romney's Five Biggest Lies

Discussion: Mother Jones, Prairie Weather, Hullabaloo and Wonkblog

RealClearPolitics Video Log:
Chris Matthews Freaks Out At Obama: “What Was He Doing?”

Discussion: National Review, Rush Limbaugh, New York Times, Wake up America, americanthinker.com, The Moderate Voice, Jammie Wearing Fools and Roger L. Simon

Politico:
The feisty Obama returns in Denver

Discussion: Washington Wire, CNN and New York Magazine

Mstech / Priorities USA Action:
RESEARCH MEMO: Results Of Dial Group Session In Aurora, CO.

Discussion: Politico, Smartypants and Weekly Standard

CNN:
KitchenAid apologizes for tweet insulting Obama

Discussion: Politico, HyperVocal and Gawker

CNN:
Obama: ‘Real’ Mitt Romney was missing from debate

Discussion: Politico

John Hinderaker / Power Line:
It's Over — I've been watching presidential debates for quite …

Discussion: RedState, Daily Kos, CNN, UTSanDiego.com, Los Angeles Times, American Spectator, The Lonely Conservative, p m carpenter's commentary, ABCNEWS and TBogg

Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
The Four Most Misleading Moments in Romney's Debate Performance

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Business Insider, ABCNEWS, Wall Street Journal, Election 2012, Wonkblog, msnbc.com, Colorlines, The Maddow Blog and American Prospect

Benjamin Netanyahu / CNN:
Empty Oval Office featured in anti-Obama ad

Discussion: The Daily Dish

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Obama's Stephanie Cutter knocks Lehrer

Discussion: CNN, BuzzFeed, The Daily Caller, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, NationalJournal.com, Mediaite, Betsy's Page, Wall Street Journal, The Lonely Conservative and ABCNEWS

Mark Landler / The Caucus:
Obama Looks for ‘the Real Mitt Romney’

Discussion: New York Times and Connecting.the.Dots, more at Mediagazer »

CNN:
CNN Poll: Most watchers say Romney debate winner

Discussion: The Hill, Firedoglake, National Review, Outside the Beltway, Politico, Washington Free Beacon, The Times of Israel, Questions and Observations, Conservatives4Palin, Scared Monkeys, Hit & Run and Washington Examiner

Jeff Davis / blog.aarp.org:

AARP's Statement on the Denver Presidential Debate — Below is the statement AARP released on this evening's Presidential debate: — Denver, CO—Earlier this evening the Presidential candidates discussed AARP, Social Security and Medicare during the first Presidential debate of the 2012 general election.

Discussion: Fox News, Weasel Zippers and The Right Scoop

Kevin Baker / Harper's:
The Man Who Would Be Ex-President

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Washington Examiner

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:
In Domestic Debate, Mitt Romney Shakes The Etch-a-Sketch

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The American Conservative, Democracy in America, Mario Piperni dot Com, Middle Earth Journal, The Daily Dish and Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire

Alex Alvarez / Mediaite: Ann Coulter On Debate: Obama Looked Depressed, Could See ‘Michelle Wanted To Go Home With Mitt’

Joe Klein / Swampland:
Obama's Debate Strategy: Unilateral Disarmament?

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Guardian, The Atlantic Online, Sense of Events, CANNONFIRE, The Hinterland Gazette and neo-neocon

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Debate Ratings: Fox News Tops Cable News For First Debate, As More People Tune In Than 2008 — More than 58 million people watched the first Presidential debate last night between President Obama and Mitt Romney, up substantially from the first debate in the 2008 election cycle, which had 52.4 million viewers.

Discussion: Poynter, Wonkblog, Daily Mail, Hot Air, Rush Limbaugh, FishbowlDC, Hit & Run, The Rightnewz and GOP 12

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:

Ann Romney to Fill in for Robin Roberts on ‘Good Morning America’ (Exclusive) — With the presidential election only weeks away, ABC News also is in discussions with first lady Michelle Obama about co-hosting “GMA.” — Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Politico, The Hill, Election 2012, Mediaite, TVNewser, Wonkette and New York Magazine

The Fix:

Networks, AP cancel exit polls in 19 states — Breaking from two decades of tradition, this year's election exit poll is set to include surveys of voters in 31 states, not all 50 as it has for the past five presidential elections, according to multiple people involved in the planning.

Discussion: The Caucus, Taegan Goddard's …, The BRAD BLOG, The Hill, TVNewser, Outside the Beltway and AEIdeas

PBS:

PBS Statement Regarding October 3 Presidential Debate — We are very disappointed that PBS became a political target in the Presidential debate last night. Governor Romney does not understand the value the American people place on public broadcasting and the outstanding return on investment the system delivers to our nation.

Discussion: Reuters, Politico, Little Green Footballs, NewsBusters.org blogs, BuzzFeed, Mediaite, Guardian and The Hinterland Gazette, more at Mediagazer »

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

We're Trying To Figure This Out — Getting a massive amount of coverage this morning is the CNN snap poll of the debate, which showed Romney winning the exchanged overwhelmingly. — But the internals of the poll look really strange. If you look at the breakdown of the sample …

Discussion: Mediaite

ProgressNow NM / ProgressNow New Mexico:

VIDEO: NM GOP Trains Poll Workers to Suppress Votes … VIDEO: GOP Caught Training Poll Challengers in Illegal Voter Suppression Tactics … ALBUQUERQUE - Undercover video recorded by ProgressNow New Mexico shows the Republican Party training poll challengers in illegal tactics …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and The Raw Story

Aviva Shen / ThinkProgress: Video: Republican Party Training ‘Poll Challengers’ In Illegal Voter Suppression

Byron Tau / Politico:

Sununu calls Obama lazy, disengaged and incompetent — Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu lit into President Obama's Wednesday debate performance, calling him “lazy” and “disengaged.” — “What people saw last night, I think, was a president that revealed his incompetence …

Discussion: Angry Black Lady Chronicles

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Romney surrogate Sununu calls Obama ‘lazy and detached’

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

David Taintor / Talking Points Memo:

Press Critics Pile On Jim Lehrer's Debate Performance — Jim Lehrer, the executive editor of PBS' “NewsHour,” moderated his 12th presidential debate on Wednesday, sitting on the sidelines as Mitt Romney and President Obama dominated the program and steamrolled the veteran newsman whenever he attempted to interject.

Discussion: The Democratic Daily and Balloon Juice

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Media piles on moderator Jim Lehrer

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Guardian and Ricochet Conversations Feed

Twitter Blog:

Dispatch from the Denver debate — The topic of tonight's presidential debate was domestic policy, and citizens all over came to Twitter to share their comments and follow millions of real-time responses from pundits, campaigns, and fellow voters. — As conversation on the Denver stage …