0 and the stuff he knows to talk about, he's likely to see the $10,000 thing. >> i'm happy with gaffe-prone. i don't think he's slow on his feet at all. >> i would say questional improvization skills. >> he has the ability to communicate with a soft touch. he doesn't come across as brazen or jerky. >> i don't know if i agree with that. >> romney's strength, zingers? >> maybe. >> what was romney -- >> i think romney is -- i think he's a sharp, on-message attacker. >> lots of practice. >> he's had six years of practice. >> so after all that -- it was like a mensa meeting -- here's what we came up with. obama's strength is that he's the president. also, surprising. yes, he is the president. romney's -- you know, with the -- being an incumbent there's strengths along with that, and as toure says he knows some would argue that obama has been given something of a pass on his record over the past year, and this might be the first real opportunity face-to-face to be pressed on his broken promises and record highs. high-d deaf sights and poverty d spending, on and on. from what you know of our friend, jim lair, do you expect these kinds of tough questions to come out in the debates? >> one of the talents of jim lair is the ability to ask questions that really reveal a lot from the people that he has as guests on his show or in a debate setting. not to put swuns on the defensive, but they can hang themselves with their own words sometimes. it's interesting to watch that interplay. >> with the exception of chris christ christie, both sides are trying to lower expectations in the debate in the last two weeks. the daily show had an amusing take on that last night. >> you're with the romney camp. how is he doing? >> you hate to beat an uphill battle like this. this is a president, the greater or for this country has seen since lincoln. >> you're with the president. >> the frightened president, john. like little girl scared. i mean, mitt romney, talk about brilliant. two harvard degrees. the guy has never even lost an argument. >> he's no slouch. i mean, he's the president. >> smoke and mirrors. right now they're drilling him on basic grammar skills. >> romney's people just hope he remains upright. he's a big napper, john. big napper. mitt romney, 90 minutes awake and upright means big win for the camp. >> so jonathan, pugh had an interesting poll showing that president obama is expected to win the debate by a51% and mitt romney by 29%. it seems like president obama is more highly anticipated as the winner of the debate. do these sort of expectations setting games actually work for voters? >> i don't think they matter too much for the voters. it's a lot of fun for us to talk about. you know, as the comedy that you were just playing before suggested, if either one of these guys gets a complete sentence out, it should be a surprise to all of us. look, i think that it -- it matters a little bit on the margins, working the reporters who then report to the public. by and large i think the public is pretty good at making its own judgments. i don't think people walk in going, well, my expectations is about a 4, so if he gets a 6, i'll vote for him. if he gets a 5, no way. i don't think it works that way for most voters. >> i saw an interesting tweet come across the twitter this morning from carole simpson. she said debates are about style you know, maybe voters say obama won it by a few points or romney or whatever. when you look at the debates that married in the pa mattered there's a delay there of a few days for a pundit class consensus to take hold that shapes the coverage in the days ahead that treats one cannot as being momentum that treats the other because of a bad performance. i can think of two examples of this. the first is 2000 when it was bush and al gore. when they signed off that night, nobody talked about al gore signing. the story was bush had great debat debates. in 1984 with reagan sxhoand mon, and people said reagan won. the story was reagan blanked out during the debate and he's 79 years old. >> the sign, i can imagine if it happened today, twitter would pick up on it and it would part of the media conversation almost immediately. i wonder if the response is speeded up over the years. >> i'm sure that has something to do with. >> jonathan, i got to ask. you got a little thing for joe biden? explain your piece in politico today about joe biden being sexy. >> we asked the question about whether joe biden is sexy, and it's asked in this context. is he bringing sexy back to the medicare set? basically joe biden has been out on the campaign trail and he flirts a lot. the people that take the best to it are women in 50s, 60, 70. >> i take to it jonathan. >> it works for krystal. >> even younger than that. you're 24, 25, right? >> thank you, thank you. >> we're constantly seeing these pictures with the vice president with his arm over women and leading in really close. >> it's gross. >> it's dramatic. >> does he kiss women on the lips, on the cheek? he grabbed a biker chick and almost pulled her into his lap. he's all over the place. >> jonathan, thanks for looking into it. we appreciate it. >> on top of the important issues. >> thanks, jonathan. >> up next, stumbles, grumbles and did he really just say that moments from another big debates last night. political smackdown massachusetts style as "the cycle" rolls on for tuesday october 2nd. 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