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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 …
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Washington Wire, Democracy in America, Hit & Run, Althouse, Via Meadia, The Daily Beast, American Spectator, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The New Republic, rubber hose, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Sabato's Crystal Ball, Mother Jones, Infidel753, Taegan Goddard's …, Joe. My. God., Angry Black Lady Chronicles and Balloon Juice
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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:
Politico, The Huffington Post and Election 2012


CNN Poll: Most watchers say Romney debate winner — Denver, Colorado (CNN) - Two-thirds of people who watched the first presidential debate think that Republican nominee Mitt Romney won the showdown, according to a nationwide poll conducted Wednesday night.


How Mitt Romney Won The First Debate — By standing on the stage with the president as an equal. — Image by Rick Wilking / Reuters — Mitt Romney, trailing in the polls, needed to prove tonight that he could stand on stage with President Barack Obama as an equal and a plausible president of the United States.
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New York Magazine, the-reaction.blogspot.ca, Washington Post, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Washington Free Beacon, Villainous Company, New York Times, americanthinker.com, p m carpenter's commentary, Poynter, Riehl World News, National Review, The Daily Caller, The Lonely Conservative, The Atlantic Online, Taylor Marsh, Talking Points Memo, Scared Monkeys, Sky Dancing, Liberal Values, Wall Street Journal, The Other McCain, his vorpal sword, American Power and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »

It's Over — I've been watching presidential debates for quite a few years, but I have never seen one like this. It wasn't a TKO, it was a knockout. Mitt Romney was in control from the beginning. He was the alpha male, while Barack Obama was weak, hesitant, stuttering, often apologetic.
Discussion:
CNN, American Spectator, Daily Kos, The Lonely Conservative, Los Angeles Times, UTSanDiego.com, ABCNEWS, RedState, TBogg and Whiskey Fire

Chris Matthews Freaks Out At Obama: “What Was He Doing?” — “Tonight wasn't an MSNBC debate tonight, was it?” Chris Matthews said after the first Obama-Romney presidential debate concluded on Wednesday night. — “I don't know what he was doing out there. He had his head down, he was enduring the debate rather than fighting it.


KitchenAid apologizes for tweet insulting Obama — (CNN) - The home appliance brand KitchenAid apologized Wednesday evening for a political tweet sent out from its official account during the presidential debate. — The tweet has been removed but at least a dozen retweets of the post showed it read …

There Went the Boom — I've been getting more and more cautiously optimistic about Romney in the last few days and, going in, I had a pretty good feeling about tonight's debate. But I had no expectation that Romney would simply control the night the way he did.
Discussion:
American Power


Romney wins; Update: CBS insta-poll shows decisive Romney victory; Update: Romney crushes Obama in CNN insta-poll — I said in the open thread that the media would strain to spin this as an Obama victory, but I assumed that he'd give them something, however small, to work with. He gave them nothing.
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The Spectacle Blog, Scared Monkeys, Bookworm Room and Say Anything


Dem Debate Meltdown: Stumbling Obama Surrogate Speaks Of ‘President Romney’ — How resounding was Mitt Romney's rout of Barack Obama tonight? In the post-debate spin room, a hopelessly muddled Martin O'Malley, Dem guv from Maryland and supposedly an Obama surrogate, wound up referring to “President Romney”!
Discussion:
americanthinker.com and nation.foxnews.com

Poll: Uncommitted voters say Romney wins debate — By a 2 to 1 margin, uncommitted voters crowned Mitt Romney the winner over President Obama in the first presidential debate in Debate, Colo., on Wednesday night, according to a 500-person instant poll taken by CBS News.
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Jammie Wearing Fools and News Desk


Chris Matthews Unloads On Obama: “Where Was Obama Tonight...What Was He Doing?” — Chris Matthews Unloads On Obama's Debate Performance — “Where was Obama tonight? What was he doing?” — Andrew Kaczynski — a half hour ago — 10 responses
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Ricochet Conversations Feed, Scared Monkeys, The Moderate Voice and The PJ Tatler


Undecided voters in focus group swing sharply toward Romney; Frank Luntz: 'I've never seen anything …
Discussion:
JOSHUAPUNDIT and Michelle Malkin

Obama's Stephanie Cutter knocks Lehrer
Discussion:
Mediaite, Betsy's Page and American Power

POLITICO: ROMNEY UP 4 IN ‘TOSS UP’ STATES
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The Gateway Pundit, Ricochet Conversations Feed and The PJ Tatler

Team Obama struggles as Romney wins big
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The Other McCain and Taegan Goddard's …

Obama's Debate Strategy: Unilateral Disarmament?
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The Atlantic Online, The Hinterland Gazette and neo-neocon

Obama fails to mention Bain, ‘47 percent’
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CNN, Ballot Box, Politico, Weekly Standard and The Hill

Romney addresses Obama, Obama addresses Lehrer at first debate
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PoliticusUSA and Reuters

First US presidential debate: Obama and Romney - as it happened
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Balloon Juice and The Mahablog

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 …
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Lawyers, Guns & Money and Talking Points Memo
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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:
AMERICAblog, The Huffington Post, Blue Mass Group and The Moderate Voice

Fact Checking the Presidential Debate in Denver — Here's a look at some of the facts thrown around during the debate. We found some facts, some fictions, some not quite facts and some mostly fictions. — red not quite fact fact fiction ribbon blog 640x100 Fact Checking the Presidential Debate in Denver
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Weekly Standard, Politico, The Daily Beast and nation.foxnews.com


Presidential Debate Transcript — The full transcript of the Presidential Debate from Denver, Colo. below, updated every 15 minutes throughout the debate. — PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AND FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY, R-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, PARTICIPATE IN A CANDIDATES DEBATE, UNIVERSITY OF DENVER, COLORADO
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Mediaite, IQ 106.9, The Moderate Voice, Sky Dancing and Politico
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2012 presidential debate: President Obama and Mitt Romney's remarks in Denver on Oct. 3 (running transcript)
Discussion:
Swampland, The Fix, American Prospect and Election 2012


Obama and Romney Clash in First Debate
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CNN, Riehl World News and Politico


Romney Backs Away From Own Tax Plan — At the first presidential debate in Colorado Wednesday night, former Gov. Mitt Romney disputed a central criticism of his tax reform plan — and appeared to disavow one of its central features. — Responding to President Obama's description of Romney's proposal …
Discussion:
The New Republic
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CNN's Factcheck for the Ages
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The Maddow Blog, Business Insider and Election 2012


Republican Congressman Campaigns At North Dakota Construction Site He Voted To Defund — Rep. Rick Berg (R-ND), locked in a close Senate race against former North Dakota Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp (D), visited the 55th Street bypass bridge construction site in Minot on Tuesday, touting the stop on his campaign's Twitter feed:
Discussion:
Say Anything


House panel: State Dept. confirmed Libya threats — A House committee says a State Department officer told panel members there were 13 threats made against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya during the six months before the Sept. 11 attack on the facility.
Discussion:
Washington Post and The Heritage Foundation
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