Noam Scheiber at the New Republic:

With all the “oohs” and “ahs” in the press-filing center, it felt like we were watching a game of the dozens rather than a presidential debate. At certain moments it had the effect of making Romney look more sympathetic, at others it made him look like the only adult on stage, and at others it made him look like he must be the front-runner, since people were so determined to take him down a peg. McCain in particular seemed to go too far, looking and sounding downright snide at times. I could see the pundits proclaiming Mitt the loser since he took so much incoming fire. But my hunch is that it won’t play that way among voters.