From Talking Points Memo:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/...
A majority of Americans who tuned in to Tuesday's town hall debate in Hempstead, N.Y. said President Barack Obama outperformed Mitt Romney, a new poll from Gallup released Friday shows.
According to the poll, 51 percent of debate watchers said Obama was the winner of the second debate, while 38 percent judged Romney the winner.
While that's a clear victory for the president, it's a much narrower margin than what Gallup showed in its poll following the first debate. A staggering 72 percent of Americans who watched that debate — held on Oct. 3 in Denver — said Romney was the winner, compared with only 20 percent who gave the edge to Obama. That made for the largest margin of victory in the history of Gallup's post-debate polling.
What does this tell us?
1. 38% of this poll's respondents are deluded.
2. Obama blew that first debate as badly as any candidate ever has, in the history of debates. We were totally justified in being demoralized by that performance.
3. Obama has the momentum now. (He "won the last game" and Romney made unforced errors in the debate ... plus swing state polling and national polling is moving in Obama's direction now.) Time to get over any demoralization, and there's no use in getting worried over some outlier polls (ahem .. Gallup).