US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION:BARACK OBAMA and Mitt Romney were still going at it in the debate hall when "spin alley" cranked up in the media centre next door.
As the incumbent and his Republican challenger fired their last shots of the night, concluding 90 minutes of barbed attacks over jobs, the economy, contraception and foreign policy, talking heads from both sides of the divide were being wheeled out to explain to the 700 assembled journalists why their guy had come out on top.
The news cycle had already moved beyond the debate, even as it was being played out.
The Democrats were first out of the traps. President Obama’s handlers, keen to capitalise on his much improved performance after a disastrous first debate in Colorado two weeks earlier, marched in declaring victory.
Journalists, who for the most part had remained deathly quiet throughout the debate, suddenly started running towards them en masse.
David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to former president Bill Clinton and Mr Obama, spoke of how the president had “dominated” in this debate, leaving Romney “exposed”.
A few yards away, Mr Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, was saying exactly the same thing. Mr Obama was “dominant”; Mr Romney was “exposed”.
However, Mr Messina refused to shed any light on the preparation Mr Obama had undertaken ahead of the debate that resulted in his “sharper” performance, as one reporter put it.
Nearby, Ed Gillespie, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign, was surrounded.
“We won the debate,” he told the mic-wielding reporters who jostled each other for pole position, albeit perhaps with less conviction than he had in Colorado.
“The governor was clear in his critique of President Obama’s failed policies,” he continued. “And we still haven’t gotten accurate information on what happened in Libya, which the American people deserve.” Rippling out from Mr Messina and Mr Gillespie, a sea of blue and red had formed.
For well over an hour, Republicans and Democrats – each identifiable by a periscope-like name tag held aloft by some poor intern – peddled their version of events.
“The president delivered in a big way,” said Democratic governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland – himself a possible contender for the presidency in 2016.
Beside him Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York vied for attention against Republicans such as the former governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge, and local congressman Peter King (who can twice call himself a Republican, both in the Irish and the American sense), as they each recounted their favourite punchlines of the night.
Perhaps somewhat tellingly, the Republicans hung around for much longer, perhaps feeling they had more to do to convince the media.
There was a definite sense, however, that suddenly it was “game on” in this election. Both Mr Obama and Mr Romney had performed well, with some early polls just edging an Obama victory. That made it 1–1, with one final showdown to go.