DEBATE 3: MORE ROAD RAGE ROMNEY?

It's possible that this is a head fake from the Romney camp, but I hope not:

Mitt Romney's campaign indicated Wednesday they have no plans to rein in the GOP nominee during the third and final presidential debate.

Romney's aggressive performance Tuesday night -- directly challenging President Obama and quarreling with moderator Candy Crowley -- had Democrats and even some Republicans arguing he came across as too assertive, which could turn off undecided voters.

But Team Romney claims their candidate won the night with his argument on core economic issues, which are the leading concern among voters. And Republican strategists say that Romney has more leeway to adopt the role of the antagonist because it's Obama who is so heavily reliant on personal favorability to buoy his poll numbers....

I agree with Kos that what we saw Tuesday night was "the re-emergence of dick Romney" -- and the temperament contrast between the two candidates was the dominant impression of the early moments of the debate. Romney interrupted, acted physically aggressive, rudely demanded respect (from the president, from Candy Crowley), and was generally unpleasant. Romney was like that throughout the debate. Unfortunately, Obama, who found a sweet spot early on (polite even as he was assertive), began to interrupt the proceedings himself, in a near-Romneyesque way, by the end. I think his interruptions may have even undermined how he came off in the debate's most talked-about moment, the exchange on Libya. He might have done better to let Romney vent and fume and then undermine him with the fact that he'd actually invoked terror in the Rose Garden on September 12.

Look, I really liked the more aggressive Obama. But pundit conventional wisdom becomes voter conventional wisdom, and this just provided an opening for the pundits to sum up the second debate as "infantile aggression: both sides do it." That's how Andrea Mitchell summed up the debate last night on NBC:

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I think Romney will be rude and unpleasant in the next debate. It's going to be on foreign policy, and I assume Libya will come up early. Romney's going to come out guns blazing on Libya, still determined to prove, not that the president's policies are bad for America, but that he, Mitt Romney, is right. That's Romney's style. That's his motive force. And as for the rest of the debate, Romney's entire foreign policy is "I'm more macho than the Obama the girlyman," which is sure to get his juices flowing.

So Obama should stand his ground. But he should he match firmness with as much civility as he can manage. Let Romney sputter and fume.