Pew Research Center analysis: Media Coverage Tips In Romney's Favor Post-Debate
http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/winning_media_campaign_2012
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a BIG part of the story. I honestly wonder if they were as surprised by Obama's "performance” as we were (or at least I was). There were such high expectations -- probably too high -- and watching Obama seemingly just standing there and taking it was almost surreal. Again, of course, that's my perspective.
In addition to the media, though, I think those who are anti-Obama and were grudgingly resigned to voting for Romney were given an infusion of excitement. He didn't seem as stupid as he'd been portrayed all these YEARS when he was running and losing, and they may have felt wow, maybe he's not so bad after all, maybe I can actually feel good about voting for him. So instead of just an an Anybody But Obama attitude, it became Pro Romney.
I'd watched a debate between Romney and Ted Kennedy, and I was shocked by how well Romney came across. If I hadn't known what he was saying was all bullshit, I wouldn't have thought he was the despicable liar we know him to be.
And as we know, the vast majority of Americans aren't wonks and don't know all the shit that we do. They base their information on perception and headlines and what a friend tells them. They fell for the act.
What I find interesting is that everybody kept saying that the debates don't really matter, yet all we remember from the Kennedy Nixon debate is that it played a big part in Nixon's loss because he came across so poorly.
By the time Joe stopped the bleeding, followed by those STELLAR subsequent debates by Obama, the fire had been lit in the bosoms of closet racists across the nation.
IMO, natch. 
