TRANQUILITY BASE HERE, THE EGO HAS LANDED.

THE MOST FUN YOU CAN HAVE AT A SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION: particularly when it’s just one you read about.  My friend Kate Paulk has ConSensual out, the second in her series of con books.  This book kept me awake half the night on second read through.  Lots of fun.  And this is the first book, ConVent.  And for those who’ve never attended, science fiction conventions are exactly like that, only with fewer demons… er… vampi… er… were…  well, there’s definitely fewer murders at cons.  Usually.

DID AL GORE ATTEND THE DEBATE? Denver due to drop fifty degrees overnight.  (And this is why we have four cats.  You’ve heard of a three dog night?  This is a four cat night.)

AND THEY DIDN’T EVEN COUNT THE FEDERAL BUDGET: two black holes found lurking inside Milky way

THE FINGER, THE FINGER: What that Obama finger really means.

LOW BLOW TWEET OF THE NIGHT: and yet funny.

HEH: “Obama probably won among radio listeners,” Media Myth Alert author W. Joseph Campbell tweets.

Earlier today, he explored the how 1960 debate myths ricochet “around the media in advance of Obama-Romney debate.”

But Obama as Nixon? I just can’t see it myself…

“HE’S STANDING LIKE A GIRL.”

IRA STOLL: An Illuminating Yet Bizarre Debate.

ED MORRISSEY: How Obama and Biden Buried the Middle Class.

UNDENIABLE:  ROMNEY 1, OBAMA 0:  Even the lamestream media Obama supporters acknowledge that it was an embarrassing loss for Obama.  And was it me, or did anyone else get the feeling that Obama felt constrained, unable to be himself?  Since his entire campaign has been about dividing Americans into rich vs. poor, white vs. non-white, religious vs. non-religious, etc., he seemed uncomfortable because his audience wasn’t his “base” but the entirety of the American people,  most of whom abhor this type of demographic warfare.  He couldn’t play the race card, the gender card, the class warfare card, etc.  And unfortunately, those seem to be the only cards in his deck. Without them, he’s just defensive and kind of sad.

THERE WENT THE BOOM: Jonah Goldberg on Romney’s performance.

PETER INGEMI: Why Mitt Won Tonight.

SEVERAL READERS EMAIL: “Nice debate. Don’t get cocky kid.”

WHEN YOU’VE LOST ANDREW SULLIVAN…

Obama looked tired, even bored; he kept looking down; he had no crisp statements of passion or argument; he wasn’t there. He was entirely defensive, which may have been the strategy. But it was the wrong strategy. At the wrong moment.

The person with authority on that stage was Romney – offered it by one of the lamest moderators ever, and seized with relish. This was Romney the salesman. And my gut tells me he sold a few voters on a change tonight. It’s beyond depressing. But it’s true.

Will Andrew to revert to Pauline Kael mode and claim once again, “I don’t know why anybody voted for Obama in the primaries?”

OUCH: Knockout: Mitt Romney Crushes Barack Obama in First Presidential Debate. When Chris Matthews and Bryan Preston agree, history has been made.

I TALK ABOUT THE MOHAMMED VIDEO AND THE NAKOULA ARREST ON CHINESE VOA TV: It’s in Chinese.

JOHN HINDERAKER: “It’s Over.” “I’ve been watching presidential debates for quite a few years, but I have never seen one like this. It wasn’t a TKO, it was a knockout.”

CHRIS MATTHEWS IN POST-DEBATE MELTDOWN: “We have our knives out! We go after the people and the facts! What was [Obama] doing tonight — he went in there disarmed!”

Funny, I can remember less than two years ago, when Matthews was agreeing with his guests that eliminationist rhetoric and weaponry-related metaphors were racist and should be stricken from the airwaves.

UPDATE: “i can’t believe i’m saying this, but Obama looks like he DOES need a teleprompter,” says…Bill Maher?!

MATT WELCH: “That wasn’t a debate so much as Mitt Romney just took Obama for a cross country drive strapped to the roof of his car.”

UPDATE: Oops, that was a retweet of A tweet by Mark Hemingway. Sorry!

BOB OWENS: “How bad was Romney’s beat-down of Obama tonight?”

BEST TWEETS OF THE NIGHT.

OUCH: Ed Schultz & Rachel Maddow agree: Romney won.

WELL, THAT WAS A BIGGER WIN FOR ROMNEY THAN I EXPECTED. David Kirkham emails:

One of my customers just emailed me, “OK, I’ll admit it, I get a woodie listening to Romney during this debate.”

He voted for Obama.

Ouch. Yeah, Romney was channeling Reagan. Obama was channeling Biden.

“THE DEBATE HAS BEEN VERY VERTICAL SO FAR,” says Jaltcoh (my son), noting that “Moderator Jim Lehrer asks Obama to expand on the idea of trickle-down government, and Obama responds by explaining his education policy of ‘race to the top.'” I’m trying to live-blog too. Not sure how much I have to say, but there’s a very active comments thread.