(1) “A debate” is a socially constructed situation with clear norms and roles. It is not the same situation as “the election.” Astute analysts are able to separate “winning a debate” from “winning electoral support.” It is possible for Romney to have convincingly won the debate by all accounts without having won much more support.

(2) From a similarly cultural perspective, I think that most of the serious people underestimate the importance of the “big bird moment” last night. I suspect that the cultural meaning of “Big Bird” goes way beyond a symbolism for the public broadcasting system. Ratings tell us that America doesn’t necessarily care much for PBS, but my gut and life experience in the middle class of middle America tell me that America cares deeply for Big Bird, who is a cherished and polyvocal cultural symbol, and a deeply personal one for recent generations—one that Romney has just politicized in ways that iterate the notion of his misreading/distance from middle-class U.S. culture and values. He misread the sign (in the Saussurian sense). Big Bird does not signify PBS for most people, but rather a constellation of things that run much, much deeper. My intuition is that this will be a bigger mistake than it will be understood or discussed to be, though I don’t have much evidence for this position beyond the large number of Facebook memes that have appeared since last night featuring Big Bird and/or his fellow muppet travelers as suddenly political figures.