DENVER - The pundits and prognosticators have spoken. The spinners and spinnees have gone home. President Obama may have sounded a bit too professorial, and Mitt Romney may have come energetic and ready to spar.
But, before the chattering class starts lowering expectations and telling voters What to Watch For in next week's vice-presidential debate in Kentucky, here's a look at what happened behind the scenes, inside the debate hall Wednesday night:
Mr. Romney, whose predebate dinner consisted of Cheesecake Factory take-out, continued his low-key debate day preparation backstage in his green room, where he and four of his sons - everyone but Ben, a medical resident in Utah, made the trip - played a last-minute game of Jenga. (When photographers were ushered out of the room, the tower was high, and still going strong.)
Inside the debate hall, Mr. Romney was focused like a laser - on his wife, Ann. After he and Mr. Obama took the stage, shaking hands and clapping one another on the back, Mr. Romney looked directly at Mrs. Romney and waved at her, before turning and waving again to the crowd.
Before the two men emerged, Jim Lehrer, the moderator, had ordered the audience to remain “absolutely silent.†At one point, he even enlisted the help of the candidates' wives, delegating Michelle Obama and Ann Romney “enforcers†and joking, “Take names. I'll humiliate them.†The crowd's first test came early, when the president wished his wife a happy 20th wedding anniversary in his opening remarks; the room began to clap but then, seeming to remember the Mr. Lehrer's admonishment, quickly stopped.
Several other moments of audible laughter rose up throughout the night, almost always in response to some quip by Mr. Obama: when the president, talking about Medicare, urged the audience, “so if you're 54 or 55, you might want to listenâ€; when Mr. Obama joked that Mr. Romney was going to have a “busy first day†with all of the promises he'd made, considering “he's also going to repeal Obamacareâ€; and when Mr. Obama said that Mr. Romney would probably agree that he'd kept his promise when he said four years ago that he was not a perfect man, nor would he be a perfect president.
When the debate ended, Mr. Obama stepped out in front of his podium first and began walking over to Mr. Romney. Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Romney then joined their husbands onstage, Mrs. Romney in a white dress, closely trailed by one of her granddaughters. Mr. and Mrs. Obama then walked over to where the Romneys were - they had since been joined by the four of their sons who were in Denver, as well as some grandchildren and one daughter-in-law - and the two families began mingling. Matt Romney, before congratulating his father, first went over and shook hands with the Obamas.
Mr. Lehrer also joined the two families onstage, an d Mrs. Obama seemed to bend down to say something to the Romney grandchildren.
At one point, as the two families were together onstage, Mr. Romney walked back over to his podium, to retrieve his notes. He held them in his hand, turning in a tight circle as if unsure whom to give them to, and finally folded them up and handed them to his son Josh.
The Obamas exited the stage first, each offering one final wave to the crowd. But Mr. Romney seemed eager to bask in his postdebate glow a bit longer. With his family behind him, Mr. Romney turned to the crowd and waved again. The right side of the hall, where Romney supporters had been sitting, cheered and applauded.
Mr. Romney then put his right hand over his heart and held it there, in a gesture that seemed to be an act of appreciation and gratitude for his supporters.
