Chip Somodevilla

The president barely got a passing grade in debate prep, administration aides told The New York Times. Distracted by other responsibilities, Obama offered erratic performances as he geared up, appearing by turns energetic or insensate, White House aides said.

Ethan Miller / Getty Images; Randy Holmes, ABC / Getty Images

At least Big Bird can take comfort that Mitt Romney once helped fund PBS. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney signed a bill for a film tax-credit program that resulted in funding for, among other things, Boston public-television giant WGBH and other producers of public television.

Brian Snyder, Reuters / Landov

So, polls will tell us soon enough where the 2012 race nets out after the two significant developments of this last week: the debate and the jobs numbers. Whatever the actual impact is on the race, the psychological impact cannot be understated.

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From Romney’s handkerchief to Kerry’s card to Palin’s palm, see politicians accused of cheating.

Streeter Lecka / Getty Images

If you did not watch Wednesday night’s presidential debate, here’s how bad it was:  the Democrats are now looking to Joe Biden to turn things around. Yes, the latest Mitt Romney was one of the best models his technicians have produced yet, free from technical glitches and referencing real Americans he’d met on the campaign trail so often you’d think he might actually remember them.

Saul Loeb, AFP / Getty Images

Jim Lehrer has heard the critics of his performance at the presidential debate, and he dismisses them—politely, of course—as just plain wrong.“I have no apologies,” he told me after returning from Denver. “I have some regrets about how some of the things went.

AP Photo (2)

In his feeble, distracted debate performance against Mitt Romney, President Obama all but ignored the major Democratic lines of attack against the Republican nominee, forcing Joe Biden to consider an effort to renew those forgotten narratives when the vice-presidential candidates face one another Thursday night.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP Photo

As the whoppers tumbled from his smiling lips, Pinocchio Romney’s nose grew so long that it was practically poking out the eye of his mournful opponent. But even had it struck raw cornea, the president would have politely removed the intruding proboscis to say, “Governor Romney, I probably agree that the nation could do with a good eye watering, though we disagree on the manner in which it would be administered,” or some such snappy retort.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

The instant postdebate polls are showing a huge Romney victory. In CNN’s survey of people who watched the debate, 67 percent thought Romney did a better job, while just 25 percent thought Obama did. “No presidential candidate has topped 60 percent in that question since it was first asked in 1984,” observed CNN polling director Keating Holland.

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From the look of my Twitter feed last night, I wasn’t the only one frustrated by President Obama’s lackluster debate performance, including his failure to mention women’s issues even once.In a year when the “war on women” has reared its head with attacks on breast-cancer screenings, birth-control coverage, and family-planning funding, along with laws requiring vaginal ultrasounds and comments about “legitimate rape,” you would think us ladies might register just a little bit—especially when the president enjoys an 18-percentage-point lead over his competitor among women.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Never mind the big-tent debate talk from both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney about how their respective politics will benefit all Americans. There’s a broader, ugly truth that as the last traces of purple fade from the electoral map, whoever wins will have little reason to take care of much of the country that rejected them.

Saul Loeb / AFP / GettyImages

Pundits mostly panned President Obama’s debate performance Wednesday night, but 78-year-old Jim Lehrer was also criticized by many pundits for being too passive as moderator. Now the former anchor of PBS’s NewsHour is responding.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Personally, I was glad that President Obama debated the way he did, despite alarmist signals from commentators who had already set up a victory for Romney in advance. They got what they predicted. But the first presidential debate came at the peak of a highly effective fall campaign by the president and his team.

Just moments after Mitt Romney and Barack Obama left the stage following Wednesday night's presidential debate, we polled our readers on Facebook to tell us one word that summed up each of the candidates' performances.

Doug Pensinger / Getty Images

Mitt Romney’s debate performance could well trigger a “restart button” for his campaign, prompting a second look at him from those who have been curious but not really committed, according to President Obama’s former chief of staff.