US presidential debate: what the pundits said Alexandra Petri called Romney's performance his "Lord of the Flies" moment, saying that not only did he win but he "set the whole island on fire and chased [Obama] down with a spear." He trampled poor Jim Lehrer underfoot, rolling a boulder onto his head, even though Lehrer clearly had the conch. Poor Lehrer. Whether letting go of the leash was a calculated, intelligent choice on his part, or simply the only option for a man walking two recalcitrant cats, he definitely let go of the leash," she wrote. Comparatively Obama acted as though his wife Michelle was about to leap up from behind the television and announce the debate had all been an elaborate anniversary prank, she added. " 'Wasn't that awkward!" he would say afterward. 'I thought I was actually going to have to debate that absurd person.' ," she adds. Washington Post colleague Greg Sargent concludes: "Overall, Romney had the far better night. At a minimum, his performance will get pundits to stop blowing funeral dirges and will get them to start saying it's a race again. Romney needed that badly, and he accomplished that and then some. Roger Simon for Politico gives Barack Obama a crucial piece of advice in his take on the showdown: "Caffeine," he says, suggesting that the incumbent looked like someone who had accidentally been slipped an Ambien. "It's not that Romney's performance was perfect or polished - - it wasn't - - it's just that Obama's was so mediocre," he wrote. While others claimed Obama may have been overconfident, Simon dismissed this saying the president is too intelligent to make that mistake. Instead he concludes that Obama was simply "overtired or overdistracted or over-something. But he certainly wasn't over-energetic. And in doing so he let a "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" Romney walk all over him, he said. Still with pundits at Politico, Glenn Thrush says Obama struggled to shake off the rust from four years off the debate circuit. "There were no game-changing gaffes and the debate was a substantive break from months of caustic negative campaigning on both sides, including lengthy discussions over deficit reduction and entitlement reform that seemed to yield hints of common ground - and also seemed to elevate both men," he adds. Thrush wasn't a fan of Romney's "cringeworthy" use of Sesame Street's Big Bird, but overall he gave the "smiling and relaxed former governor" an unexpected thumbs up. Over on the west coast, Don McManus for the Los Angeles Times compares Barack Obama's surprisingly lacklustre performance to previous incumbents, saying he had proved to be no exception to the rule. " Gerald Ford stumbled against Jimmy Carter in 1976, Carter was pummeled by Ronald Reagan in 1980, Reagan fumbled in his first try in 1984, and so on," he wrote. McManus adds that the president's apparent disinterest during the debate showed he had possibly underestimated his Republican challenger or had simple "gotten unused to being challenged directly." McManus also suggests another reason could have been a lack of preparation as he focused his time on crises in the Middle East. However, he concludes that the explanation on why the president gave such a poor performance will be of little relevance as now the media is focused on a new narrative: "now Obama looks as if he's lost a step and Romney's showing new life."