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 libya timeline. another explanation the campaign knows libya is not