Boy, that stage at DU got slippery last night—all with dropped balls, most notably Barack Obama’s.

Where was laying into Romney every time he said that Obamacare would strip over 700 billion from Medicare? He should have gone for Romney’s jugular.

The riposte would have been that the 700 billion out of Medicare is accounted for in trimming inflated insurance and medical costs.

Where was reference to the infamous videotape when Romney started talking about how much he loves everyone?

Where was the energy we’ve come to see as an inseparable part of the man, booming out in his rich baritone voice with conviction and braggadocio.

On every point Romney made Obama had a chance to fire off zingers of his own, and he didn’t do it, which has certainly astounded me as one lone blogger who has been defending him since he took office.

It’s going some to make Mitt Romney look good. And good Romney was, projecting a sincere, animated prepared new version of himself none of us have ever seen before.

Those asking the same questions beginning with the moments after the debate: Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, Howard Fineman, the New York Times and before the NYT was quoted on Morning Joe this a.m. making the same points as the rest of us, yours truly.

The most frustrated person in the country today could be Bill Clinton, who has been knocking himself out for a sitting president’s reelection, when last night we got Obama at his most puzzled, enervated, and without the infamous teleprompter, often at a loss.

And what about that John Kerry prepped him! For what???

Was the problem that he was being too polite– was it that he was professorial to a fault– what was it?

Since the aristocrat gentleman John Kerry is the one who prepared Obama for this debate, and Kerry has shown the same kind of enervation and above-it all vibe we got from POTUS tonight, I have to wonder.

I blogged about Romney’s multiple screw ups in anticipation that they would continue. I found his steamrolling of Jim Lehrer too much, and it seemed to me that Lehrer lost control of the debates.

But the important thing tonight was to see our president man up to the lies Romney and Ryan have been telling on the campaign trail.

And it didn’t happen.

We need you to save yourself, Mr. President, and we hope that Al Sharpton is right– that Romney made so many promises tonight that he set himself up.

Why should any of us continue to have your back and fight for you when you engage in role reversal in front of millions of Americans and show your impotent side?

Because underperforming this way is very expensive– it could cost an election, which could cost those of us who believe in you.