If you actually read the transcript of the debate, and start looking into the facts, it appears Obama was the 'winner' - of course, that matters little. Romney looked like he won.
Romney basically became someone else on stage, someone who never really said all the things he said over the last 1.5 years, who never took the positions he took... he basically became a slightly right-of-center Democrat for the debate audience, and denied all knowledge of that 'other' Romney... who the majority obviously didn't like. He reset. He shook the etch-a-sketch.
Romney is a liar and a moral weakling.
The Romney-Ryan campaign at it's core is based entirely on race baiting. It's a huge, moving lie made up of a thousand smaller lies, held up by a scaffolding of propaganda.
If a man like Romney becomes president, the country becomes a weaker, crueler, more banal version of itself, a parody of what it could be.
I don't think the country has fallen that far yet, and I don't think Barack Obama does either. I expect to see his 'A' game next round.