CANDY WOMAN – AT 9:04 A.M. ET:  Much anger swirling about Candy Crowley, who moderated the debate.  Overall, I didn't think she was that bad, but she went over the line several times, helping Obama, and ruined her performance by those excesses.

The clock shows that she gave Obama more time than Romney, and that she inappropriately interrupted Romney several times.

But the most outrageous moment came – and the Romney forces should file an official protest – when Crowley intervened to "correct" Romney by saying that, yes, President Obama did describe the Libya episode as a terrorist attack the morning after it happened.  Romney had claimed that it had taken two weeks for the administration to come to that obvious conclusion.  Obama then openly asked Crowley to say more about that, making her an ally, not a moderator.

Moderators moderate.  They do not fact check.  That is the job of the opposition candidate.  That's why he's there.  And it turns out that Crowley was factually wrong, adding to the sense of outrage on our side.  Obama was talking about terror attacks generally after the Libya attack.  He did not specifically link Libya to terrorism for several weeks. 

This was a bad moment, an unacceptable breach.  But I have to say that Romney did nothing to exploit it.  He was not prepared to drive the issue home.

However, as one astute observer said, the fact that this breach by Crowley occurred, and the fact that it will be discussed today, brings attention back to the Libya issue, where the facts are on Romney's side.  They should be on this issue all day today. 

The next debate, Monday night, will be on foreign policy.  The administration considers this a strong point.  It is not.  Romney can shine, as he did in the first debate, although I'm guessing the audience will be much smaller.

Still a tight race.  Romney must now regain the momentum.

October 17, 2012