O.K., everyone go online and bring up the debate, turn the sound off and just watch

[rufus dog]

Don't focus on what you have been told, just watch.

Then tell me who you think won, try it.

[Indydem]

1. Great idea!

I'm sure that's how most voters watched it too.

[rufus dog]

17. I was going to state that in the OP

specifically, anyone undecided must just be hearing BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, even with the sound turned on.

[cilla4progress]

2. Curious --

what is your opinion?

[rufus dog]

18. I actually had it turned down for a good 45 minutes of the debate due to dinner guests.

One guy was doing a lot of blinking along with spastic head movements. You know who that was.

[pinboy3niner]

3. The replay just started on CNN. nt

[janx]

4. I kept trying to point out to people that Romney looked as if he were about to cry.

In the total frenzy of posts, I never got one reply. I must have asked three or more times! I kept asking whether or not Romney always looked like that during debates--nervous and scared, but forcing a smile.

Is that what you mean? I hope it is, cause I don't think I'm senile yet.

[ellie]

5. Yes, I noticed that. His eyes were glassy.

[janx]

10. And he kept blinking and forcing a smile,

as if he was either very angry, very nervous, or both. It's that forced smile that some people fake when they don't want you to know they are angry or freaked out.

[rufus dog]

22. If you were a cop you would have administered a breathalyzor

Right?

[mrs_p]

6. yes - i thought so too

and the think with his arms pressing downward through most of the debate was distracting

[politicat]

11. also, bouncy.

Twitchy, shifting from foot to foot. Kinda like he forgot to visit the head.

[mrs_p]

14. maybe that's why folks are wondering

if he imbibed in caffeine for the first time ever

[politicat]

42. That's my guess...

I grew up in a Mormon community, and now have a Mormon step-mother and step/half sibs and a sister who converted. As a teen, the in-community recreational drug was Mountain Dew. (not for me, I was weaned on tea and coffee.) I've seen that bounce, that flush, that glassy look before. Obviously can't prove it, but neophytes rarely understand that caffeine is both a stimulant and a diuretic.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. I said similar

like he was thinking "Please Mommy... get me out of this".

[janx]

27. Did anybody answer you, or were they all too caught up in the sports metaphor?

[gulliver]

9. Yup, he looked small and humiliated...on the verge of tears.

I'll bet a lot of people noticed.

[janx]

15. He DID! I'm so glad someone else noticed this,

because I've never seen him debate before. Have you? Does he always do this?

[JI7]

12. This is what he looked like to me also when he was not speaking

[janx]

32. It was especially obvious then, yes.

His expressions when he looked at President Obama and then looked away...
But there were some creepy moments when he was speaking as well.

[seabeyond]

16. ya... the bit i saw, he had watery eyes. what was that. nt

[Avalux]

28. Nope, not nervous or scared.

He seems to get more and more excited as he talks, he seems to really enjoy lying. His facial expressions are forced, as if he's trying to keep from really losing control. I saw a glimpse of it in the GOP debates.

[janx]

29. That certainly could be it. I'd just never seen him

in a debate before and wondered what it was.

[gkhouston]

30. I don't know that I'd say he was on the verge of tears, but he had this

fixed grin that was disturbing. As if he were on the verge of panicking, or frustrated that Obama wasn't going Angry Black Man on him, or something. Obama seemed in control of himself; Romney looked like he could have lost his shit at any moment. Actually, if they'd had a firmer, stricter moderator, Romney probably would have lost his shit in frustration.

[janx]

35. President Obama just looked normal--

like he always does. The contrast was remarkable.

[doublethink]

7. Already did it earlier...

Tweety said earlier something like "Debates have nothing to do with substance, but impression, body language blah blah blah etc.. etc..." not sure where he was going with his post debate commentary, but you hit this on the head. k&r.

[boxman15]

13. This is why I'm saying Romney won.

He spewed so much bullshit I couldn't possible keep up, but that doesn't matter. He looked confident. He looked at ease. He put the president on the defensive. Meanwhile, Obama looked dispirited, weak and tired, even if in terms of the facts and substance he won hands down.

[doublethink]

19. The President looked Presidental ...

Romney looked unhinged, desperate, I relaxed halfway through the debate because of it. To each his own, but I think most sane Americans would not want that man (Romney) answering the 3 am phone call.

[Avalux]

25. Romney does not look confident. I'm watching with the sound off.

I see one man who is presidential, who looks at ease and deliberate, not losing his cool despite the hyped up little boy to his right, who gets more and more excited with each lie he tells, to the point where he's having a hard time containing his glee.

Which one do you want with access to the bomb?

That's what I see.

[uponit7771]

20. rMoney didn't have a game changer, he needed one

[janx]

21. And now, watching without the sound

makes it even weirder!

F'N WEIRD!

[Generic Other]

23. Excessive blinking often means you are a liar

Romney blinked. A lot.

[rufus dog]

24. a whole lot

A WHOLE STINKING LOT!

[AzSweet]

26. Somebody popped him some speed..haha. ..

Was texting with my sister in FL tonight, and we both agreed...he did seem "up".

[glinda]

41. Maybe the Rick Perry drug.

[janx]

31. kick

.

[FrenchieCat]

33. My daughter and I watched it together.....

and both agreed that Romney should buy himself a lip,
should have had make up put where it was red above is lip,
and his eyes were watery, and he looked like he was somewhat unhinged.

That's what I saw....and that is what I have commented on tonight.

[janx]

34. Hi Frenchie--

Have you seen him in a debate before?

[FrenchieCat]

36. Only with a bunch of clowns.....

He is sooo disingenious, till it ain't even funny.
I don't see how anyone could believe anything
this man has to say.....
and then call him a "Winner" nonetheless.

I tell you, sometimes I think I have entered into Bill Maher's imfamous GOP Bubble
round here!


Miss you!

[janx]

38. Miss you too, Frenchie!

I have to hit the hay pile and get up early. Work keeps me very busy.

[regnaD kciN]

37. Unfortunately...

...voters don't decide who to vote for based on watching debates with the sound turned off.

[janx]

39. From the Atlantic:

Civics teachers won’t want to hear this, but the easiest way to judge “victory” in many debates is to watch with the sound turned off, so you can assess the candidates’ ease, tenseness, humor, and other traits signaled by their body language. By this standard, Ron Paul, with his chronically ill-fitting suits, often looked cranky; Rick Santorum often looked angry; Rick Perry initially looked pole­axed and confused; Jon Huntsman looked nervous; Newt Ging­rich looked overexcited—and so on through the list until we reach Mitt Romney, who almost always looked at ease. (As did Herman Cain, illustrating that body language is not everything.) Romney looked like the grown-up—the winner, the obvious candidate—with or without sound. “He is as good as it gets in debating,” former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who was the first major contender to drop out of the Republican race, told me. “He is poised, prepared, smart, strategic—tactical, too.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/09/slugfest/309063/

[janx]

40. No, they don't, but take a look at this:

“The key to a debate,” Dean said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, “is to turn off the sound.”

“It’s not what they say,” but instead “nonverbal cues” that most affect voters’ perceptions of the candidates, he said.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/sunday-shows/howard-dean-on-debates-obama-should-avoid-being-irritable--20120930

[Savannahmann]

43. What I saw and heard was the greatest speaker of our generation

Obviously distracted, and distant. He looked down, around, at the wrong camera. He hesitated, halted, and made himself sound uncertain.

I saw the man who has delivered the finest speeches in history come dangerously close to choking. I saw an unprepared candidate, and I saw the problem when you dance around and sing We've won, before the contest gets going. I saw the danger of overconfidence, and proof that we have not yet gotten serious about this election. I saw a man we didn't know, a much different man than has delivered such fine debate performances in the past. You have to want the job of President more than anything else. Romney looked like he wanted it, President Obama did not.

President Obama looked like he wanted it four years ago, when he wiped the floor with McCain. He looked like it during the Democratic Primary Debates in 2008. He did not look like it last night, and that is what I got. It breaks my heart, and makes me sick to think that Romney might win this damned thing and destroy our country. But I saw a candidate who isn't serious yet, and we're running out of time for him to get serious about fighting, and winning for us.

If President Obama cared about the election half as much as the people who post here, he would have done twice as well as Romney. If he knew the material half as well as the posters here, he would have called Romney a liar and quoted facts and figures, and then explained the facts and how they impact the rest of us. He spent three days prepping for the Debate, and it didn't show. Or worse, I'd hate to see him without those three days of prep.