There are only two things I'm sure of about the debate, and a few guesses.

[1-Old-Man]

No matter what Romney will claim victory' no matter what FOX will declare Romney the winner. Those two things are certainties.

What is in question is how will the news sources respond to it. CNN will call it a tie with Romney having done a fine job, good fellow hail and hardy. CNN, or I should say Wolf Blitzer, will be disappointed in the President's performance. Rachel, Cent, Tweety, and the good Reverend will swoon. PBS/NPR will call it a tie, but hint mightily that Romney won. ABC, CBS, NBC will have irrelevant commentary for exactly 17 hours, and then they'll move on.

President Obama will win. He is the better speaker, he is much better versed in the issues, he has plans and programs to base policy, particularly economic policy, on in comparison to wild promises to be brought to fruition at some time in the future. And in the end his only written policy, the Ryan Budget, will kill Social Security and Medicaid - something you can bet will be mentioned at the debate.

[Drunken Irishman]

1. My guess...

I disagree with you. I think, after the debate, almost every major network, maybe minus FOX, will tell us that Romney did well, but probably didn't do enough to move the needle. They'll say he really needed a game changer and it didn't happen. Then CNN will do its flash poll, as they always do during these presidential debates, that show Obama winning 53-35 or something like that, with the rest (the other 12 maybe calling it a tie) and then, like you said, move on to the next debate.

It won't change the dynamics, though, but it will make it that much harder for Romney to gain traction.

[AndyTiedye]

2. The Whole Focus on "Zingers"

…is to get something that they can cut and edit down into a "sound bite" that they can play over and over to bash Obama.

We can expect the GOP, the media, and the moderators all to be working closely together to attain this goal.