If you’re a Democrat or an independent supporting Barack Obama, last night was tough to watch. Obama took a lot of punches, but didn’t fight back. All he did was block or deflect Mitt Romney’s attacks on his policies regarding the economy, medicare, Obamacare, taxes, and social security.

Obama Was All Defense and No Offense
For some inexplicable reason, Obama chose not to hit back. He could have gone after Romney’s economic record while he was Governor of Massachusetts (which ranked near last compared to the other states). He could have gone after Romney’s record as a destroyer of jobs when he was with Bain. He could have gone after Romney for his 47% comment. He could have gone after Romney for going against the auto bailout that not only saved the u.s. auto industry and its jobs, but also turned our automakers into one of the tops in the world. Could have. Dammit. Could have. Sigh.

It makes you wonder if that was the intended strategy since he was ahead in the polls - just stick to talking points and don’t say anything half resembling a gaffe.

Etch-A-Sketch In Full Display
Or could it just be that the ultra Conservative Romney that Obama have been campaigning against wasn’t the same Romney that was in the debates?

Remember when the Romney campaign said that, like an Etch-A-Sketch, they would start with a clean slate in the general election? Well, that was it last night. Romney turned into a moderate Republican in the debates. You see hints of it after the Republican primaries -- like him backpedalling on repealing all of Obamacare. Obama is a moderate Democrat. Both are near the center. Both agree on health care, social security, medicare, and taxes with very slight differences.

And I think that’s what caught Obama off guard. He wasn’t quite sure which Romney he was debating against. It’s much tougher to hit a shifting target. The Romney that Obama debated against last night had turned into a near mirror image of himself. How do you attack someone who has changed his views so much that it resembled your own?

I have a few ideas. Regarding Medicare, Romney said he’ll give people a choice between the existing program or a voucher program. This makes it tricky to attack because if you don’t want the voucher program, you can just stick with the existing one. Obama went only after the voucher program, but I think what would have been more effective is if he had attack the alternative choice itself. Why offer the American people an alternative choice that’s worse than the existing program. Why waste their time and tax dollars to include and enact a choice that would increase their healthcare premiums.

Romney used the same trick regarding Obamacare. Hand Obamacare to the states and let them decide whether or not it’s appropriate for them. Obama should have countered by saying that everyone should have the rights to receive care, regardless of pre-existing conditions, not just selective states. It’s not fair to the rest of the American people in other states.

The Winner: Romney
In sports, they say defense wins championships. It’s true, but you can’t win games if you don’t score. You can’t score if you don’t hit back. And the aggressor always get the bonus points.

Visually, Romney was the aggressor. Most pundits, both Republicans and Democrats, gave the debate to Romney.

But if you’re just reading the transcript. It’s not as bad. Well, it’s probably not as bad as the pundits make it out to be. Democrats wanted Obama to knock out Romney. That didn’t happen. Instead, Romney was the one who was inflicting pain, even if Obama did a decent job of defending or dodging the hits.

What Moderator?
Romney had an assist from Jim Lehrer, the moderator. He seemed to always get the last point in. He interrupted when he felt like it and pretty much did as he pleased. Sure, Obama later was able to go over his allotted time for his answers, but Romney, again, was the guy who controlled the debate by pushing Lehrer around.

Huge Ratings
I’m surprised by the huge turnout for this debate. 67M people tuned in to watched this debate. That’s more than the 52.4M from the 2008, when Obama squared off with John McCain.

It’s also the most tweeted event in political history, generating 10.3M tweets during the 90 minute debate.

Democrats were looking for a TKO from Obama, and Republicans were looking for Romney to turn his campaign around. Republicans got what they wanted.

Romney’s Performance Helped in the Polls
Reuters has some early poll numbers, and they indicate that Romney’s performance last night helped. His favorability rating has finally climbed above 50%. Among independents, he saw an 8 percentage point increase. He is also seen as the better person to grow the economy, create jobs, and bring down the deficit. Overall, Obama’s 7 percentage point lead in the Reuters/Ipsos poll went down to 5.

Romney is still behind, but at least he’s stopped the bleeding and gained some momentum. We’ll see in a week if this debate bounce will last.