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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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

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.

Undecided voters in focus group swing sharply toward Romney; Frank Luntz: 'I've never seen anything like this'; CBS post-debate poll shows big win for Romney … Tonight, pollster Frank Luntz assembled a focus group consisting of undecided Colorado voters.  By the end of tonight's debate …

Obama's Stephanie Cutter knocks Lehrer  —  DENVER, Colo. — Obama spokesperson Stephanie Cutter took a swipe at moderator Jim Lehrer's largely passive debate performance tonight, saying the PBS anchor had allowed Mitt Romney to act as the moderator.  —  “I sometimes wondered if we even needed …

Team Obama struggles as Romney wins big  —  (AP Photo/The Denver Post, John Leyba) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; INTERNET OUT  —  DENVER — Just seconds after the presidential debate ended here at the University of Denver Wednesday night, Mitt Romney's advisers and surrogates rushed to the press room …

POLITICO: ROMNEY UP 4 IN ‘TOSS UP’ STATES  —  This week, Politico released its latest Battleground poll of the presidential race.  Despite coming from the left-wing news site, the poll is one of my favorites.  Its put together by respected pollsters from both parties, makes available …