Cottle thinks Romney has lost it:
Romney may be a good debater. He may even be a great debater. But at this point his team has fumbled the expectations game to the point where the governor will need to perform at a level well above anything we’ve seen from him to date if he wants to pull off the “W.” Just holding his own against the president—often a challenger’s primary hurdle—won’t change the game, and, at this point, a game changer is what people are demanding.
Scott Conroy believes that the expectations game is over-hyped:
According to Craig Shirley, who has authored two best-selling books on Ronald Reagan, the former governor of California did benefit in his lone 1980 debate against President Jimmy Carter because he was widely perceived at the time as either "a lightweight Hollywood actor" or a "nuclear-crazed cowboy." Reagan’s competent performance went a long way toward changing those assessments just a week before Election Day, but that instance was the exception rather than the rule in recent presidential history.
Be sure to check out Amira's debate expectations parody.
The Dish 