rose-colored glasses when it comes to russia and mr. putin. i m not certainly going to say to him i will give you more flexibility after the election. after the election he will get more backbone. reporter: very easy for the challenger to fall into traps laid by incumbent commander-in-chief. snap polls taken after the debate found that president obama robly won the debate also that governor romney didn t appear to do himself any harm either, martha. martha: that may have been one of the most interesting exchange of the night last night. one of the things, john, people are scratching their head over a little bit this morning why governor romney didn t go after the president more on the issue of libya. what is the word on that today? there is a number of explanations you could take. the one that comes from the romney campaign said the way the question was phrased really led to the governor to broader discussion about al qaeda and its resurgence on the globe and not specifically the l
a winning issue with voters. economy is moving numbers, not libya. the governor wanted to focus on other things rather than get into a lengthy litigation on the timeline. the other explanation which may be the most plausible one, the last time he mentioned this at a debate it blew up in his face and hasn t talked about it on the campaign trail ever since. for context i spoke to senator john mccain who told me i would have hammered the president on the libya timeline, martha. martha: hindsight is always 20/20, john. thanks very much. bill: looking in the rear view mirror. romney s running mate congressman paul ryan hitting good morning america today applauding his boss s performance. look i think president obama spent half the time attacking mitt romney not offering a new vision and here is romney said here is how we do better job in iran policy and here is what we should have done in all the other areas and more importantly i think he gave a great job articulating a vision for americ