Ed Morrissey @ Hot Air:
Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell seem a little surprised by the results of this focus group conducted by CBS during last night’s debate, a group that consists of eight undecided voters in Ohio — a critical swing state for both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Conventional wisdom and spot polls showed Obama winning a narrow victory over Romney in last night’s debate, but that’s not how CBS’ independents saw it:
That’s 6-2 for Romney, and a couple of other interesting points. Obama tried very hard to belittle Romney in his response about the Navy, and that clearly backfired. While panelists cheered the more civil tone after two debates of constant interruptions, Obama’s testiness and scorn came across all the more strongly when it appeared. Romney succeeded in clearing what Ronald Brownstein called the “commander bar” by appearing more in control of himself and more focused on the future:
Foreign-policy debates between the presidential contenders follow a more predictable pattern than encounters over domestic policy. Inevitably, the challenger accuses the incumbent of indecision and drift and explains how he will bend the world more to his will by showing strength and leadership; the incumbent, with more gray hair than four years earlier—some of which was acquired in long, frustrating negotiations with other nations—tries to explain, without appearing defeatist, that the world isn’t always so easy to command.
Monday night’s final encounter between President Obama and Mitt Romney honored all of those conventions, albeit with fewer sparks than have marked previous such events. … or any challenger, the principal goal in a foreign-policy debate is to cross the bar as commander in chief. For most voters, Romney probably cleared that bar, but he didn’t vault over it.
Speaking of swing states, I mentioned the Rasmussen national tracking poll earlier today. What about their swing-state tracking poll? While remembering that this won’t have any reaction to last night’s debate, Romney has now moved to a five-point lead in the swing states:
