Yes, Obama won the debate.
He won it big, it was no contest.
But Romney did what he needed to do.
What he had to do was convince people that he wasn't some crazy second coming of George W. Bush, another neocon puppet who was going to immediately go on a mad world wrecking tour.
If there were undecideds out there who were looking for that assurance, I think he successfully gave it to them last night.
That's all he really needed to do last night, and he did it.
If Ron Artest hadn't already taken the name "Metta World Peace", Romney probably would have used that name for the debate.
Far from bellicose, he sounded almost dovish in his approach to the middle east, even trying to possibly get slightly to the left of Obama by giving a tiny nod to a two state solution.
Sure, most of what he said sounded painfully rehearsed and memorized, but despite that he accomplished his main goal for the night.
Sound like a plausible commander in chief.
Unfortunately, for the audience he was aiming at, I think he did that.