[bigrun]

Game, set, Obama.
The president did exactly what he needed to in tonight's debate: He used Romney against Romney.

President Obama did what he needed to do tonight. He took the debate to Mitt Romney. He was relaxed, even jaunty, as he scored one point after another. He seemed to be enjoying himself at Romney’s expense. He looked more comfortable and commanding as the debate wore on, while Romney looked more stiff, edgy, and salesman-like.

[Romney helped the president out by making a few unforced errors. Obama was clearly vulnerable on the Benghazi attach. His initial response was not all that persuasive because it ducked the question of who screwed up by failing to honor the request for more security. But then Romney saved Obama’s bacon by alleging that the day after the attack, Obama was still calling it a protest in response to an offensive video.

It fell to moderator Candy Crowley to correct Romney, a too-rare factual intervention by a debate moderator, which knocked Romney totally off his game and diverted attention from the legitimate issue of why more security was not provided. Obama had also missed an opportunity to point out that it was the Republican House that cut the administration’s request for embassy security by $300 million, which could have settled the issue right then and there.

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/17/game_set_obama/