People are agonizing. Obama lost! Or he let Romney get away with too much! Or, here, let me tell you why Romney really lost. It’s all crap, both the hyper-concern on the part of (some) Democrats or the triumphalism by (some) Republicans.
Partisans who watched the debate are not going to change their minds about who is the better candidate and for whom they will cast their vote. Maybe a few people who haven’t paid attention to the election before will waver a little, but one debate does not change an election. Gore wiped the floor with Dubya in 2000 and look how that turned out. Guess who won the first presidential debate in 2004 to move into a tie in the polls with the incumbent? John Kerry. Anyone remember the Kerry administration?
How many people watched the debate last night? Fewer than you think. Maybe 50 million plus or minus a few. Maybe. How many of those already have their minds made up? Most of them. So have fun talking about last night’s super important debate performances if you like. Tell me all about Big Bird getting a pink slip from Romney on twitter or Obama’s body language (yeah, the media now uses body language experts to tell us how a debate is going, and has for some time). But like most people I wasn’t listening to the Barack and Mitt show last night.
And if history is any guide, this debate won’t change the final election results, whether you watched all ninety scintillating minutes of it or not.
