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Obama wins the debate... but did Romney sew up the presidency?

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By Noel Young, Correspondent

October 23, 2012 | 3 min read

Obama won last night's presidential debate on foreign policy with 48% of CNN's national panel of undecided voters giving him the verdict to Romney's 40%.

Romney and Obama. "I agree." said Mitt

But I am going to go out on a limb and say Romney may well have sewn up the presidency. He was just so so damn agreeable.

The CNN experts lost count of the number of times he said he agreed with Obama. "If the debate had gone on for 30 minutes longer, he would have finished up endorsing Obama, " said one.

But Romney was playing a very clever game. He didn't want anyone out there to think he was a warmonger. As one commentator put it, "He wanted people to see he wasn't a bomb thrower. He wasn't George W. Bush." And he certainly succeeded in that. He came out as a peacemonger.

Obama was much more aggressive, still making up for his flop in the first debate which set the tide running for Romney. Of course he mentioned Osama Bin Laden. Romney congratulated him.

The president mocked Romney's complaint that the Navy had more ships in 1917. "We had horses and bayonets then," said Obama. Now we have aircraft carriers "that planes can land on" and nuclear submarines. It wasn't the number; it was the capability.

He criticised Romney for being being "all over the map" and constantly changing his position.

Romney kept his cool. Mr Nice Guy, reliable non-threatening and maybe presidential . "He didn't want to be too hot , " said one commentator. One thing he did say was that he was that he would indict Iranian president Ahmadinejad .

But other than that , he was sweetness and light, Mr Reasonable.

A good number of a group of undecided voters in the studio at Boca Raton, Florida, raised their hands when asked if the debate had help them make up their mind. They didn't say which way.

Just two weeks to go and then everyone will have their say.

Of course, I could be wrong .

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