Washington ( CNN ) -- Mitt Romney 's solid debate performance Wednesday night gives him the type of energy and momentum that President Barack Obama now will have to work overtime to undo . `` The thing that this debate did is it gave people reasons to think about ( a ) President Romney , '' said John Geer , chairman of Vanderbilt University 's political science department . `` This often happens with challengers in the first debate . Now Obama needs to reconnect with the American public and ( make the case of ) why he should be re-elected . '' According to a CNN/ORC International survey conducted immediately after the debate , 67 % of registered voters who watched the debate said that the Republican nominee won , with one in four saying that President Barack Obama was victorious . Before the debate , however , another CNN/ORC national poll of likely voters showed that 56 % felt Obama would win . What a difference a night makes . But poor initial debate performances rarely shift the tide of an election , experts say . Romney was n't stellar , but Obama fell short . `` Obama can afford to lose this one , '' said Melissa Wade , a debate professor at Emory University in Atlanta . Historically , losing the first debate has the least impact on an incumbent president , she said . According to an analysis by Gallup , televised debates have affected the outcome of only two elections in the past half century -- Nixon-Kennedy in 1960 and Bush-Gore in 2000 . Still , the stakes for Romney to pull off a good performance were high and , according to post-debate polls and commentators , he dominated the president . `` Romney has a message and he was finally able to deliver it . He stopped playing small ball , '' Geer said . `` Romney gets to play offense for a while . He can stress the message 'we ca n't afford another four years of this . ' Talk about how ( he 's ) going to get command of the economy . He has facts . The guy is smart . '' 5 things we learned from the presidential debate . Obama now faces the task of recovering from his debate stumble . `` He was terrible last night and I do n't understand why , '' Geer said . `` Obama did n't seem like he wanted to be there . He needs to be much more aggressive . He let Romney get away with stuff he should n't have . '' Obama must work to slow Romney 's traction . `` Romney gains a little bit of momentum . The big question in this is whether or not he can sustain it , '' said Andra Gillespie , associate professor of political science at Emory . `` At this stage in the game , with this race being as close as it is , you do n't want to make unforced errors . Obama made unforced errors . That ca n't happen again . '' Inside the campaign , there already appears to be activity around retooling its approach . `` Obviously , moving forward we will take hard look at this and make judgments where to draw lines in debates and how to use our time , '' said senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod Thursday in a conference call with reporters , adding that Obama is `` eager '' for the next debate . Obama and Romney returned Thursday to the campaign trail in battleground states . Obama wasted no time going back on the attack , accusing Romney of dishonesty over tax policy and other issues . `` If you want to be president , you owe the American people the truth , '' Obama said during a campaign stop in Denver . Romney 's supporters , meanwhile , crowed about his performance , saying it reshaped a race that the former Massachusetts governor had appeared in danger of losing . `` He did exactly what he had to do for the undecided voter in Ohio or around the country , '' said Sen . Rob Portman of Ohio , who played the role of Obama in debate rehearsals for Romney . Body language : 'Romney was able to out Obama Obama ' Campaign experts say the turnaround comes not a moment too soon . The Romney campaign spent much of September trying to recover from a series of gaffes ranging from his assertion that 47 % of people were entitlement-dependent supporters of Obama to his politically-charged response to the violent attacks on U.S. embassies in Egypt and Libya . `` Romney did a good job of redeeming himself of all the gaffes of September . He gave a clear case of why he did n't think Obama deserved a second term , '' Gillespie said . But , with just a few weeks before the general election , Romney has to do a lot more than say Obama does n't deserve a second chance , she said . `` You have to convince voters your vision is better , '' she said . `` It has to be consistent from here on out , or last night 's performance was an anomaly . '' Democrats tried to downplay the impact of Romney 's debate win . `` I think that Governor Romney is certainly a skilled debater . And last night he was able to elevate his level of performance . But he did not change the fundamental dynamics of this race , nor did he change some of the policies that actually got us into the economic mess that we have , '' Maryland Gov . Martin O'Malley , a top surrogate for Obama , told CNN . Obama accuses Romney of dishonesty in debate . Both candidates have their work cut out for them heading into the next presidential debate October 16 in New York at Hofstra University . The town hall format is one that could easily trip both candidates , debate experts say . In town halls , Obama tends to sound too professorial and Romney runs the risk of coming off as stiff , Wade said . The unpredictable nature of the questions also sometimes throws candidates , she said . `` The danger of the town hall is that you 're getting them from the audience , '' Wade said . `` The way the questions are asked are not the way they are in practiced debates because these are from people not policy experts . '' Analysis : 5 reason the president fumbled the debate . CNN 's Tom Cohen , Dana Davidsen and Paul Steinhauser contributed .
Mitt Romney 's debate win offers momentum moving forward . President Barack Obama must work to recover from lackluster debate . The next day 's town hall format could make for impromptu moments .