Honestly: I love msnbc and watch alot!...but last night and tonight I have to say that Chris went way overboard. I had to shut him off after the debate last night and he is only mildly better tonight. I don't think his rants do anything for the President. So he lost the debate...honestly it is not the end of the world. The sun rose this morning just like any other day!. Take it easy, Chris!

He was not at a debate last night, he was in the grip of the CEO and the moderator blew it from the very beginning. So when you were in debate class in school, exactly which moderator allowed you to talk out of turn and run the debate yourself? None, it was against the rules and what we got last night was a waste of time and money.

When you know someone is being intellectually dishonest and is not going to answer any questions, but to give you his line of propaganda, then it is over. I wish Obama had walked off as President since it would be more preferable to go out to dinner with Michelle than to listen to a pack of nonsense. It was insulting and as usual the President was not treated with any deference by the hate mongers and birthers and the arrogant. Can you imagine Ronald Reagan being treated so dismissively? Can you remember any President listening to "you lie". There has been no collegiality from the rank and file Republican party and this latest insult to our intelligence continues in a long line of arrogance and supression.

If one thing Obama failed to do was to speak truth to power and voting by his feet... hey Romney now you have an hour and a half to go on and on and on about whatever you wish to lie about. Explain your vouchers and your tax rates and how you will balance the budget... send in the chart board with drawing material..... and we can have the Romney infomercial....

This is the lesson Chris. You can't put lipstick on a pig, you can not make someone debate when they have no intention of doing that and blowing their cover. You might as well go home and fight another day. Show you are the most powerful man in the world, ditch that dude at the altar.... upity women unite cause we know bs when we see it...I have to answer the red phone, sorry to leave you hanging...

Chris,

Don't think President Obama was playing prevent defense. More like a Rope a Dope. Let Mitt out himself and punch himself out. Plenty of ammo with all the lies. Mitt has played his hand, now Obama is going to wax his clock. Takes more than a good debate to be President. Sarah Palin did well with nothing more than debate preparation. Anyone that votes purely on debate performance is an idiot, it is nothing but fake flash.

I could not believe last night. The only thing that comes to my mind, and don't want to sound like a conspiracy theory, but it was like someone drugged the President, and towards the end of the debate he was coming back to himself.

Did anyone check this out?

I do not know what happened last night. I never the saw the President so off his game. I really don't believe in conspiracy theories, however, it was like the President was drugged with Rush Limbaugh's illegal drugs.

Towards the end of the debate the President seemed to be responding a little better, not great.

Either I've read too many books, or someone like the Secret Service should check this out.

This is the first round of a 3 round bout. The first round is to jab, parry, and kind of spar with your opponent. You now have an idea of what your opponent is doing and is capable of. In the second round, you know what the opponent is going after, so you can have a prepared defense to keep the opponent from gaining any ground. Round 3, the knock out punch will be delivered, and Romney will be left on the floor to his handlers, wondering what happened.

Chris get over this whining crap about Pres. Obama. Mitt Romney will eventually do himself in. He is nothing but a liar and he left the Obama folks enough ammo to last for two campaigns. Thank God for video tape which will be used against him. I beg the Obama folks to do a two minute commercial using the last 18 months of Mitts own words against him. OBAMA 2012!

I'm sorry but I have to take the other side here....I think it was strategy on behalf of the President. He knew he had to remain professional, likeable, and Presidential while his component spit out lie after lie and flip-flopped on major issues. I think the President was using this first debate to get a feel for how Romney was going to handle the stress and pressure and he talked loud and fast and too much on many occasions(which was totally disrespectful to the rules of the debate and the moderator). People are saying he was detached and not engaged but if you watch him he took in every word. He kept shaking his head and smirking and not giving Romney the dignity of engaging him in his web of lies. If I could read his thoughts I would see the Reagan line "there you go again" and when he looked up at Jim he had a look that would sound like "seriously, can you put your foot down and tell him how the rules of a debate work because I am not even going to entertain this 'stump speach style' of debate".

I think he had many chances to nail Romney with comebacks. It took self restraint to not give Romney even the respect of looking at him and acknowledging his lines that were what he wanted people to here rather than the truth. Obama looked like he was thinking "my supporters know better than to believe this flip-flopping all over again". Think about it, that is all the shows are talking about today; Was this a strategy for Obama? He didn't engage at all with attacks where he had the opportunity. However there is a large focus on the amount of lies that Romney told. He may have been more bold and animated and loud but I'm even more confused about his policies than I was before; therefore Romney didn't really do what he came to do.

I believe the next debate will be very different now that the President knows Romneys 'game plan'.....

Chris Matthews your parents must have dropped you on your head numerous times—you’re an idiot. Maybe it’s the early stages of Alzheimer’s setting in.

Barack Obama got his butt kicked last night and the main stream media is trying to put their spin on it, and make it something it’s not. Last night Barack Obama showed the American people why the economy is in the tank, and why the unemployment rates is above 8%, for the entire time he’s been in office. Face it the president failed, just like everything else he has done for the past three and half years. Four more years of this crap and we’ll all be on food stamps and paying $10.00 for a gallon of gas.

God Bless America

Chris Matthews your parents must have dropped you on your head numerous times—you’re an idiot. Maybe it’s the early stages of Alzheimer’s setting in.

Barack Obama got his butt kicked last night and the main stream media is trying to put their spin on it, and make it something it’s not. Last night Barack Obama showed the American people why the economy is in the tank, and why the unemployment rates is above 8%, for the entire time he’s been in office. Face it the president failed, just like everything else he has done for the past three and half years. Four more years of this crap and we’ll all be on food stamps and paying $10.00 for a gallon of gas.

God Bless America

Chris,

Don't you know what a "rope-a-dope" looks like...!?!? Obama survived Mitt's best punch...It's going to be a steamroll from here on out....!!!!

Chris Matthews is an ass. To give credibility to Sharpton is unreal. Remeber Twana Brawley? Rember he lied to give himself credibily. I have never seen so much Bull@!$%# in my life. First of all, do you have common sense or logic? Do you know the difference from right and wrong or black and white.? We learned more about his grandmother than why he has screwed the american people. He never once gave a concrete answer about anything. everytime he was cornered he brought up his Grandmother, such as medicare or social security. Did he ever once mention helping his brother in Africa? Hell no. His friends are racist, like The faux Reverend, Wright and the racist professor on campus that caused a stir when a campus officer just did his job by protecting this idiot from a possible thief. So what does Obama do? He passes judgement where its not required and decides to have a beer with the two to make up for his racist mistake. He talked about the wealthy with their private jets, but his wife went to france on the tax payers dime. So Chris quit the news business because you wouldn't know real journalism if it gave you a tingle up your leg. No wonder Fox is kicking your ass. They know how to report the truth and you are in a fantasy world.

Chris, Romney was forceful like eat your peas. What you get from force is counterforce. People don't like it since force tends to fade out and you have to try to force something else. So Romney is forcing solutions by making up the new candidate and when that fails he will force something new again and again and again. People get fooled by forceful people, fall for nationalistic slogans, scapegoat the "other" for problems, think they are following a winner only to find the biggest looser.

Obama is powerful. His words have deep meaning and force has no meaning at all. If you win one night you may feel vindicated. When you are powerful you are joyous. The way Obama conveys to the American people that we are all created equal and endowed by divinity itself, that no force on earth can take away from us. That is our real freedom. Our Constitution is unique that it is a spiritual dirivitive and not a trickle down vestige from the age of absolute monarchy and all the force that was needed to hold it together with endless wars over primacy of king making.

Of all this wringing of hands and asking the experts, think on it this way. For all of his winning by force, we really remember nothing Romney ever says. He seems to forget "we the people" and constantly refers to himself and what he can do... blah, blah, blah. I think Nora Ephron got it right when she wrote "I Remember Nothing" which is what an evening listening to Mitt amounts to... one long snooze and a yawn... sort of like the Trolls and their endless words of wisdom. I so feel uplifted after reading their cheerful insights. Kind of like Bush and his eight year dry drunk presidency....uplifting all the way.

For those of you insulting and disrespecting Chris Matthews just walk away. No one forces you to watch Hardball or even watch MSNBC's coverage of the debate and see his comments/interviews/commentary. If you don't like his extremely passionate take on politics then don't watch him, come to his shows website and comment on his blog. Simple solution.

You know, he does have a commercial on MSNBC where he states how he loves a good hard debate between politicians but reminds people that it is important to remember to respect others at all time. he is referring to elected officials debating but I believe overall he is referring to all Americans respecting each others opinions without the name-calling and insults.

Romney had all the time in the world to prepare. Pres. Obama has a country to run. Syria attacks Turkey, China and Korean exerts territorial rights over islands in Japanese waters, etc. etc. etc.

I'm disappointed, yes. But my vote has not changed. It's only made me reach out to everyone around me to vote Democrat. What will a Republican-controlled Congress and White House will do to alllllll the work that so many have sacrificed so much for?! We have to rally around the President, Chris!

Chris and all the commentators miss the underlying caution to avoid racist reactions that white people might have toward Obama were he to act like an "uppity @!$%#." This election is different from the last in that Obama now has a lot of deeds that his opponent can attack, and Romney did a lot of attacking. Attacking back is a dangerous tactic for Obama because of the latent racism of many white people, which could include some independents and even some Democrats. His popularity among whites is partly due to his management of race perceptions and the avoidance of race as a topic of debate.