Chris Matthews is on Charlie Rose praising Romney to the skies for a "masterful" debate performance, which is shameless BS. I watched the debates, and what I saw was an obnoxious Romney who was rude to the moderator and rude to his oppponent. He didn't "take control," he just simply ran over the top of everyone, and I think that tactic ultimately turns people off and turns them against you. Which would explain why Mitt couldn't get elected Senator in the race against Ted Kennedy, and didn't run for a second term as governor of Massachusetts because he wouldn't have gotten reelected, and why he has run for President twice before now and lost, and is, at least so far, trailing in this third try.
Also what I saw was a Romney who had no conscience and no compunctions about lying brazenly and shamelessly, whereas the President clearly has regard for truth and therefore is constrained in his own comments and taken aback by encountering a pathological liar. I myself have encountered a pathological person, and it is difficult for a normal person to comprehend at first what they are seeing and hearing. In my experience, I had an "Aha!" moment when I realized this other person had no conscience, and I got over my feeling of "I can't believe it," and then all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. So I think Obama initially couldn't grasp that his pathological opponent's behaviour would have no constraints.
Matthews has been sucked in by Romney's act, and has gone over the top drooling over Romney like a teenager gawking at his first Playboy or Hustler magazine! Ugh! Sickening.