Yes, Romney "won" the debate tonight... he clearly had more energy and more fight. Obama seemed disengaged and failed to call Romney on his lies.
But what I see in the snap polls that show Romney won is a whole lot of people (like me) who wanted to see Obama crush his smug face. I wanted counter-attacks that left Romney a quivering mess. I wanted Obama to make "Mr. 47%" wet his pants and cry.
I didn't get that... and Romney won the debate. But winning the debate because you escaped the ass-kicking most Americans feel you deserve isn't going to win you the election.
It sure isn't going to lead to a 10-point shift in Ohio, New Hampshire and Nevada, which is what Romney needs in order to have a chance at winning.
I predict we'll see some fact-checking of Romney's crazy assertions in today's debate. We'll see some Obama ads cut to point out all of the ridiculous lies Romney told. We'll see Romney walk back most of these promises. And we'll see some tightening in the polls but nothing that improves Romney's odds in any real way.
He won the debate, but he's still going to lose the election.