Romney Wins Debate & Scores Big Gains

Mitt Romney simply destroyed Barack Obama in the first Presidential debate and established some big gains in several critical areas. Not to read too much into a single event there are still two more debates and five weeks until Election Day, but for tonight it was *mission successful* for Team Romney.

Looking confident and fully prepared the Governor took control of the debate from the first minutes and never relented. Meanwhile President Obama looked preoccupied, listless and stumbled through most of his responses and answers. Romney exuded confidence in his demeanor and body language while Obama seemed to withdraw and embodied a man beaten.

Just how well did Governor Romney do? Immediately following the debate CNN and CBS put *flash polls* in the field and the numbers say it all. At 4:35PM today CNN showed pre-debate polling that said 56% expected Obama to win the debate with 32% favoring Romney. Post-debates numbers are considerably different as shown below.

An almost 2:1 margin favoring Obama turned into an almost 3:1 result in favor of Romney. Even Democratic pundits conceded that the President was the clear loser and not by a small margin.

The CBS poll of *uncommitted voters* put Romney at 46% to Obama at 22% overall but the details are even more notable.

56% said they had an improved opinion of Governor Romney
63% said Romney cares about their needs and problems (30% before debate)
78% said the Governor has strong leadership qualities (59% before debate)
54% said Romney made his positions clear if he’s elected (22% before debate)
34% said they’d vote for Governor Romney (22% before debate)

Read the entire poll for many other areas where Romney made significant gains. These are impressive gains and Governor Romney was the clear and decisive winner tonight but, as I said before, there is a long way to go. But for tonight and this morning Team Romney has every reason to be happy.