Mitt Romney went into last night’s debate with one objective in mind and he nailed it. According to a post-debate CNN poll of registered voters, 60 percent of those who watched said they could see Romney as commander in chief. An almost identical 63 percent said the exact same thing about President Obama. That same CNN poll also found that while a plurality of respondents thought Obama won the debate 48 percent to 40 percent, slightly more people (25 percent) said the debate made them more likely to vote for Romney than said the same thing about Obama (24 percent).
That makes three debate performances in a row where Romney did what he had to do. In the first debate, Romney completely dismantled the cartoon villain image that Obama spent millions on negative advertising to create. In the second debate, Romney clearly established himself as the only candidate with a believable plan to fix the economy. Then last night, Romney comfortably established himself as a confident and competent commander in chief — a reasonable, viable alternative to Obama.
