George Stephanopoulos on the Debate: Alright, We'll Call it a Draw!

I’ll disagree with John Nolte about one thing in his otherwise perfect post: George Stephanopoulos didn’t embarrass himself by calling last night’s hammering a “tie.” George Stephanopoulos is clearly incapable of being embarrassed.

Here’s what the Bill Clinton bag man, who has declared the Democrat the winner of 8 of the last 9 presidential debates, said this morning about Romney’s Colorado avalanche.

DIANE SAWYER: Let me turn to you right now, George, nobody knows politics better than you. Here it is, bottom line, was there a clear winner tonight?

GEORGE STEPHANOPOLOUS:  I think Governor Romney was definitely more crisp in his presentation. He was leaning into the debate when President Obama was a little bit more laid back. I think he was able to be aggressive without being offensive. So, even though there were — I didn’t see any knockout punches. No breakthrough moments or major mistakes. I think Governor Romney will get the boost that challengers usually get. The big question, did he do anything to dramatically change the trajectory of the race?

SAWYER:  [after some chatter about Twitter reactions to the Romney’s comments about Big Bird] I want to turn to Matthew Dowd, a key strategist for both sides of the aisle, at different points in his life. Is George right?

MATTHEW DOWD:  Well, I think this — we all try to make comparisons to these races to previous presidential races and this race has been so eerily familiar to 2004 and tonight was another example of that. it is as if — very much like Bush-Kerry. Bush came in with a lead, not huge, he came in to play for a draw and John Kerry came in to win. The exact same happened tonight. Mitt Romney came in to win this debate with passion and it looked as if the president came in, as long as I play for a draw, I keep a lead and go forward. if that’s the case, I think a very close race just got a lot closer.

SAWYER:  Really? Played for a draw and succeeded?

DOWD:  No, the president played for a draw, but the guy that comes in and plays for a win usually gets the victory.

STEPHANOPOLOUS:  Does a tie go to the challenger?

George, last night’s Denver demolition was every bit the tie that this was.

Of course, since the knight in that video is wearing black armor, posting the clip was racist. I’ve already written myself a sternly worded memo warning myself never to do it again.