memeorandum: Romney's strong debate showing puts Europe on edge (Luke Baker/Reuters)

3:20 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: New York Times, Marbury, KDVR.com, Riehl World News and The Daily Caller

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, Ross Douthat, p m carpenter's commentary, Sky Dancing, Los Angeles Times, The Hinterland Gazette and National Review

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 …

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: The Huffington Post, Washington Monthly, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Demos Blog, Election 2012, The New Republic, Daily Kos, The Maddow Blog, Taylor Marsh, AMERICAblog, Blue Mass Group, The Moderate Voice and Brad DeLong

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: Washington Monthly, Politico, GOP 12, The Impolitic, Scared Monkeys, The Huffington Post and Washington Post

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: Firedoglake, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice and Talking Points Memo

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: Smart Politics, Fox News, AMERICAblog, Associated Press, Reuters, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, The Raw Story and Talking Points Memo

RealClearPolitics Video Log:

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.

Discussion: New York Times, The Moderate Voice, National Review, americanthinker.com, Roger L. Simon, Jammie Wearing Fools, The Lonely Conservative and Connecting.the.Dots

CNN:
CNN Poll: Most watchers say Romney debate winner

Discussion: Politico, Firedoglake, The Hill, Outside the Beltway, National Review, Questions and Observations, The Times of Israel, Washington Examiner, Conservatives4Palin, Scared Monkeys, The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh, Hit & Run, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Bookworm Room, Ballot Box, Maggie's Farm and The Other McCain

Amie Parnes / The Hill:
Obama campaign: Adjustments will be made in debate strategy

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

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

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

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

Discussion: RedState, Daily Kos, CNN, American Spectator, Los Angeles Times, UTSanDiego.com, ABCNEWS, The Lonely Conservative, TBogg and Balloon Juice

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

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

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

Discussion: Politico

CNN:
KitchenAid apologizes for tweet insulting Obama

Discussion: HyperVocal, Politico and Gawker

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

Discussion: FactCheck.org, Talking Points Memo, ABCNEWS, Business Insider, American Prospect, Wall Street Journal, Election 2012, The Maddow Blog, Wonkblog, msnbc.com, Lawyers, Guns & Money and A plain blog about politics

BuzzFeed:
How Mitt Romney Won The First Debate

Jonah Goldberg / National Review:
There Went the Boom

Discussion: Ballot Box, GayPatriot and American Power

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

Discussion: CNN, NationalJournal.com, Mediaite, Betsy's Page, ABCNEWS, The Daily Caller, NO QUARTER USA NET, The Lonely Conservative and American Power

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
The Return of Massachusetts Mitt

Discussion: Esquire, Washington Post, Vodkapundit, The Daily Dish, Lawyers, Guns & Money and American Prospect

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Mitt Gets Away With It—For Now

Discussion: Washington Post and A plain blog about politics

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

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay

Mark Finkelstein / NewsBusters.org blogs:
Dem Debate Meltdown: Stumbling Obama Surrogate Speaks Of ‘President Romney’

Discussion: americanthinker.com, Scared Monkeys and nation.foxnews.com

Bob Owens:
How bad was Romney's beat-down of Obama tonight?

Discussion: Power Line

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
CNN's Factcheck for the Ages

Discussion: Business Insider and The Maddow Blog

Michael Barone / Washington Examiner:
Thoughts on the first presidential debate

Discussion: Wake up America, New York Magazine and Sense of Events

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

Discussion: The Daily Dish

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
McCain surprised with Romney, Obama debate performances

Discussion: CNN and Politico

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, The Right Scoop and Washington Examiner

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

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The American Conservative, The Moderate Voice, Forbes, Mario Piperni dot Com and Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire

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

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, CANNONFIRE, The Hinterland Gazette and neo-neocon

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 and Mother Jones

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: Balloon Juice

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Media piles on moderator Jim Lehrer

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Guardian and Ricochet Conversations Feed

NPR:
Transcript And Audio: First Obama-Romney Debate

Discussion: American Prospect, Washington Post, The Fix, Mediaite, New York Times, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Power Line

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, The Hill, TVNewser, Outside the Beltway, AEIdeas and Taylor Marsh

Mstech / Priorities USA Action:

RESEARCH MEMO: Results Of Dial Group Session In Aurora, CO. — M E M O R A N D U M — TO: Priorities USA Action FROM: Geoff Garin, Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group — RE: Results Of Dial Group Session In Aurora, CO.

Discussion: Smartypants

Alexander Burns / Politico:
Priorities pollster: Romney gains on taxes, not likability

Discussion: Weekly Standard

David Corn / Mother Jones:
Why Obama Didn't Mention the 47 Percent Video

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

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, The Rightnewz, Outside the Beltway, National Review and FishbowlDC

Annie-Rose Strasser / ThinkProgress:

KitchenAid Jokes: Obama's Grandmother Was Lucky She Died Before He Became President — The company KitchenAid is primarily involved in the business of making cakes. But their Twitter account stirred up some political ire last night when it tweeted a “joke” about President Obama's dead grandmother.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and The Raw Story

Brian Anthony Hernandez / Mashable!:
KitchenAid Tweets Joke About Obama's Dead Grandma [UPDATED]

Discussion: BuzzFeed, theGrio, New York Magazine and Business Insider

Luke Baker / Reuters:

Romney's strong debate showing puts Europe on edge — (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's lackluster performance in the first U.S. election debate provoked uneasiness in European capitals on Thursday, where hopes are mostly, if unofficially, pinned on his securing a second term.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Lonely Conservative

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: Politico, Little Green Footballs, Mediaite and Guardian

Cindy Adams / New York Post:

NBC sued over Trayvon tape — Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman is suing NBC over the network's botched editing of his 911 tape, Page Six can exclusively reveal. We hear Zimmerman's attorneys are about to file a complaint against NBC and its top executives, naming news president Steve Capus …