JENNIFER RUBIN: TEN DEBATE TAKEAWAYS. Including these: “Both camps know that Obama got the sequestration answer wrong. The idea of putting defense on the chopping block came from the White House during the budget ceiling talks and, moreover, Obama signed the bill. . . . President Obama is in some state of duress, realizing he lacks an agenda. His repackaged binder of ideas got a thumbs down from the skeptical media.”

The fact that Obama is facing any skepticism from the media is, of course, the biggest indicator of how things are going.