Sadly, America seems to have devolved into a land where everything is reduced to either a reality show, or a spectator sports event. The election is covered like a football game where Obama's grim facial expressions or looking at his notes during the first Presidential Debate counted as fumbles, while Romney's lies were seen as great strategic moves that earned him first downs and touchdowns.
On the other hand, we live in a country where conspiracy theories about cooked-books showing a drop in the monthly unemplyment level or the birth certificate of the President make sense to at least half the country, while the elementary elements of civics, how government operates, the way that budgets work, federalism and political philosophy require too much effort for those same people to even become acquainted with, let alone master. Add to the mix the fakes who pose as religious leaders and use the Bible as a cattle prod for the idiots who follow them, and we end up with too many "voters" have no clue about the actual content of laws that they deride with mantras authored by the think tanks for the 1%. These political rubes likewise are unfamiliar with the process of legislating or the extraordinary power of lifetime-appointed Justices on the Supreme Court who have jaded and peculiar views about our society. Therefore, the content of a presidential debater's contentions is as unimportant as the unintelligible lyrics to a rock and roll song sung by a contestant on American Idol. What matters to the debate audience is entertainment, and most importantly, who has the scent of a winner because it is his bandwagon to which many of the voters will glom. Obama's fall in the polls is a consequence not of what was said by anyone at the debate, but instead, the reports after the debate that Romney had won it. It is for many, a response similar to fans in a city that has no baseball team who become Yankee fans because that team is seen as a winner.
The great irony is that Democrats have proven from FDR through LBJ and Clinton that they can indeed govern, and historically. Democrats have been dedicated to serving the needs of the majority of Americans. However, Democrats are usually second rate campaigners since they are incurably dedicated to solving problems, and in recognizing and trying to cure the real problems that beset Americans, they are tied to reality and facts. The consequence is that Democrats have difficulty working lies into their rhetoric. By contrast, Republicans have proven by Bush, the 2010 experience in the States and the House of Representatives that they cannot govern, and since the truth has no home in the tool box of the modern Republican leaders, they can sell mule urine and call it orange juice with a straight face; and about fifty percent of the public does not know the difference- or even care.