“Obama’s weaknesses on full display in debate”; “Obama admits debate performance a flop”; “In debate style and body language, Romney trumps Obama”.

These have been the sort of remarks making headlines since the first of the three United States presidential debates in the run-up to the vote between Democratic incumbent, President Barack Obama, and Republican candidate Governor Mitt Romney. As expected, the debate has been extensively analyzed in the hopes of predicting who might become the next American president. What was especially striking about the media coverage this time was...