Second Thoughts

In the previous post, I indicated my belief that Biden won the debate last night. As noted by the post-debate polling, however, it appears that a lot of people actually thought Ryan won. I initially thought that was surprising, but upon further consideration, this may bode well for the Romney-Ryan ticket.

In past years, after watching debates I often found that polling results often differed from my view of the debater's performances. At this point, I have to assume that the victor is in the eye of the beholder. That is to say, we tend to think our guy won whenever its a close call. If so, these early polls could indicate a small but clear majority of the American electorate favors Romney-Ryan.

Moreover, if this idea is correct, it really underscores how well Romney did versus Obama in the first debate. In that one, it was an almost universal verdict for Romney; only the hardest of partisans saw it differently. Also, this means that Romney has a real chance to take a choke hold on the election with a fair to good performance next week. He won't have to do as much as last time, whereas, for Obama, it may be do or die.