Romney Wins One...

That's the consensus, from every point on the political spectrum.  Achieving a consensus like that is an achievement in and of itself :-)

I've got a big link roundup below for your edification. I don't think I'm exaggerating a bit when I say that the conservative pundits are over the moon, and the liberal pundits are howling in despair.  Speaking as someone whose desired outcome from this election is “not Obama”, if this same mood percolates to the electorate, then I'm a happy guy.

But I didn't have anything like the intensity of the emotional response of either group of pundits.  If I said the response of the liberal pundits was a “0”, and that of the conservative pundits was a “99”, then my own response is about a “51”.  Why?  Because I heard Romney making lots of big-government arguments last night, and that's most definitely not what I'd like to see in the country's chief executive.  For example, Romney made it clear that he has no intention of cutting federal education spending, or of even rationalizing military spending.  That's a big-government pol speaking, not the kind of pol that wants to slash the size of government.

Here's how I put it to my wife last night: it's as if we were planning a big night out, but someone forced us to choose between going to McDonalds or going to Burger King.  I badly wanted squash soup, lobster, and tira misu – but the choices I have are limited to a Big Mac or a Whopper.  I like the Big Mac better than the Whopper, but damn it, I wanted the lobster!  That's how I felt after last night's debate.

My own analysis, for what little it's worth: as a debater, Romney won – he absolutely smashed Obama into the dirty stage floor, and looked like he enjoyed doing it.  On the merits of the arguments, Romney also won, though much less convincingly.  There were some good zingers (pointed out in the linkfest below), mostly in favor of Romney.  The Iowa Electronic Markets took a bit jump this morning, in Romney's direction (though they still favor Obama by better than 2:1), an indication that people putting their money where their mouth is are having a similar reaction...

Bob Owens' tweet must sum up how the Obama team is feeling this morning (sorry, Bo):

Some people eat when they get depressed. I hope Michelle put Bo outside for the night.

The links:

Wall Street Journal
Andrew Sullivan
John Hinderaker: It's Over
National Journal: Liberals Livid
Jonah Goldberg: There Went the Boom 
Breitbart: Halfway Through, They Should Have Stopped the Fight
CoyoteBlog: Is This Really Political Discourse? 
Politico: Not Debatable: Obama Stumbles
Neoneocon: The Emperor's New Clothes
Roger Simon: The Night Liberalism Died 
Tim Blair: Race Identified 
Villainous Company: “Unexpectedly!”, Romney Wins Debate
Rob Long: The Spin Begins 
Mark Hemingway
Jack Dunphy: Mrs. Dunphy Sumps Up the Debate
Rick Wilson: Remarkable 
CATO: How the Media Undermined Obama's Debate Performance