Or are you just happy to see Mitt Romney?

Andrew Sullivan at the Dish wonders if Obama cost himself the election with a less than enthusiastic debate performance. Before the debate Obama was polling strongly at 51-43 but after Romney is rocking it with 49-45 according to a Pew survey taken last week. When you look at the internals you see that basically all of Obama’s leads have evaporated.  

For example, Obama went from an 18 point lead among women to dead even (47-47). Sullivan writes:

Seriously: has that kind of swing ever happened this late in a campaign? Has any candidate lost 18 points among women voters in one night ever? And we are told that when Obama left the stage that night, he was feeling good. That’s terrifying. On every single issue, Obama has instantly plummeted into near-oblivion.

The question is what caused such a dramatic reversal? It’s not like Obama was a total train wreck during the debate. Did he accidentally punch a baby? No. Did he fail to speak, you know, words? No. He was simply underwhelming at worse.

The surge has since receded slightly with a PPP survey putting Romney up by just two (49-47).

It is possible that many people were just waiting to come out of the closet for Romney. It’s not that he obliterated the president on national television. He just showed a little life. All those people out there who are dissatisfied with the current administration, but never saw a reason to get excited about Romney, just found a reason. 

But, is this the end as Sullivan thinks it might be? With a month to go was this Obama’s Waterloo or a kick in the butt reminding him not to be complacent?