Before Round One, President Obama told a supporter that debate preparation was “a drag.” Based on his lackluster performance on Wednesday night—and in the face of a confident attack by Mitt Romney—that’s an attitude he’d better get over before Round 2.

By Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.

I wouldn’t have thought it possible. Mitt Romney had so thoroughly won the expectations game heading into last night’s debate in Denver (with the public—by large margins—expecting President Obama to do better) that I just assumed that it would be one of those wonderful occasions when, as my old New York City Hall colleague Bill Murphy, then of Newsday, used to put it, “pack journalism breaks down.” And that Romney would flail, if not fail.

But doggone it (that seems the right mild oath for a non-caffeinated candidate) if Governor Romney didn’t deliver. From the opening bell, he looked cool, collected, sensible, and, yes, sympathetic. When Obama spoke, Romney smiled indulgently—his visage, and his luxuriously pomaded hair, an echo of Ronald Reagan’s—while Obama furrowed his brow, looked down, and took notes whenever Romney had the floor. It was Obama who flailed and, in that sense alone, failed.

If the dominant impression that viewers glean from such debates comes via the social cues and body language of the combatants (as some studies suggest it does), Romney was Captain Kirk and Obama was Mr. Spock. Both may yet live long, but in the next month, only one will prosper.

In the first half-hour of the debate, when many viewers are forming their dominant impressions, it was Romney who won on points and style.

Of course, Obama scored some points. He sharply delineated the difference between his view and Romney’s proposal for creating a system of private insurance vouchers in lieu of Medicaid for future recipients, and correctly cited the most popular feature of what he said he was proud to call Obama-care, to wit: “Insurance companies can’t jerk you around.”

But in the first half-hour of the debate, when many viewers are forming their dominant impressions, it was Romney who won on points and style, however much hooey (or at least voodoo economics) might have attended his description of his own tax policies. His math was fuzzy, but Obama fumbled his ripostes again and again, resorting to words like “data” and “instructive.”

When Romney declared, “I’ll restore the vitality that gets America working again,” it was easy enough for even a skeptic to find Vitalis, if not veracity, in the claim.