[mezz]

The big thing is that the Obama campaign's got nothing. They were running Big Bird ads this week. Romney has managed, just by having himself heard, to punch through the Obama campaign's portrail of him as unfit. That's over and continuing to campaign in that vein is going to hurt Obama now, not help him. What is he supposed to do now, defend his record???

His one shot is to be convincing and powerful in the coming debates and prove that his plans for going forward are better than Romney's. A tall order to fill when his plans for the future aren't much different from his failed plans (if you can even call that performance 'a plan'). I predict he'll try to come out on the attack and look even less presidential than he's managed to already.

Once people become ok with Romney, Obama's got nothing to sway them back with... and a lot of people have decided that they really are ok with Romney since last Tuesday.