Video of the debate will be below the post and the transcript is over at Politico, for those who missed it and need to see for themselves just how badly Mitt Romney stomped all over Barack Obama.
Insta-polls gave it to Romney. Democrats gave it to Romney. Undecideds gave it Romney. Twitter was aflutter. Chris Matthews melted down. Bill Maher, who gave $1 million to an Obama superPAC tweeted "I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Obama looks like he DOES need a teleprompter." Andrew Sullivan live blogged the debate and at 10:29pm he declared "He choked. He lost. He may even have lost the election tonight."
Those reactions are representative of what is being seen across the web this morning, from liberals.
CNN reports on their insta-poll :
According to a CNN/ORC International survey conducted right after the debate, 67% of debate watchers questioned said that the Republican nominee won the faceoff, with one in four saying that President Barack Obama was victorious.
"No presidential candidate has topped 60% in that question since it was first asked in 1984," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
CBS did their own poll of uncommitted voters:
By a 2 to 1 margin, uncommitted voters crowned Mitt Romney the winner over President Obama in the first presidential debate in Debate, Colo., on Wednesday night, according to a 500-person instant poll taken by CBS News.
In the moments following the candidates' performances on the University of Denver stage, 46 percent of voters gave the economy-centric debate to Romney, 22 percent said they believed the president was the winner, and 32 percent called it a tie. More good news for the GOP nominee: 56 percent of those polled said they viewed Romney in a better light after watching the debate. Eleven percent said their opinion of him dropped, and 32 percent cited no change in opinion.
Frank Luntz assembled a focus group of undecided Colorado voters who overwhelmingly handed it to Romney with many prior Obama voters saying they would now be voting for Mitt Romney.
[WATCH]
Conservatives were happily blown away . Hugh Hewitt captures the mood of the moment, headlining with "Since No President Has Ever Done This Badly In A Debate, We Have No Idea What It Will Do To Race"
A historic defeat for a sitting president. Never has a POTUS been this badly whupped in a debate. It is that simple.
It wasn't just that Obama was so bad, but that Romney was so good. Conservatives see a candidate they did not know they had, and independents see a candidate who could turn the country around. No way to predict what this will do to campaign over a week.
Take aways: trickle down government, "you pick losers," and Solyndra and other green energy expenditures of 90 billion could have been 2 million teachers.
Throwing in the towel: Michael Moore, Andrew Sullivan, David Gregory, Ed Schultz.
Watching the whole debate the one point that stuck out above all for Romney and there were many, was his schooling Obama, politely, on business 101 and what it takes to create jobs, therefore more taxpayers which raises revenue, which in turn helps the economy grow.
That is the issue that voters are the most concerned about according to priority polling.
The massive explosion of reaction from headlines to discussions on blogs can be seen over at Memeorandum.
The Denver Presidential Debate, 10/3/12, video below: