WhyteRayne, while Romney won't be a disaster at the debate, neither will he be able to land a heavy blow. A tie works to Obama's advantage not because of how the MSM might spin it but because Romney will likely be in the position that Gingrinch was in during the primaries of needing to land heavy blows on his opponent and his campaign crumbling when he failed to land them.
I don't think Romney needs to "win" the debates. As I said, I thought Bush lost all three debates in 2000, but he still won. But while I thought Bush "lost", I thought he never lost BADLY. He did decently -- in boxing terms, Gore was winning by close decisions, not knockouts.
Bush still needed unintended help from Nader to win, but if anyone is hurt by the third parties this year it is more likely to be Romney than Obama. Also, if one is going to compare Gore and Bush to Romney and Obama, I'd say Gore is more like Romney than Obama and Bush is more like Obama in terms of their political abilities which is what will matter most to voters who don't decide based purely on the issues. Issues voters aren't likely to be swayed at all by the debates.
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