There's been a lot of palaver about Romney's strategy all over the airwaves and the internet today. I think the analytical point that is being largely overlooked is the core of the Democrat strategy after Obama was not able to rebound over lost ground during the second debate.
Think about this debate together with the VP debate. In both cases, the Democrat tried to be as irritating, condescending, and dismissive as possible. This was not just asshole behavior coming out, this was the core and purpose of their planned debate strategy...they knew they would get a pass on it for themselves, but their real goal was to provoke an outburst from first Ryan, then Romney, which would become the GOP's 'Howard Dean Scream' as played out in the media. The GOP candidate would most assuredly NOT get a pass for an emotional outburst in the media coverage, no matter how great the provocation, and it would be all the media talked about for the next week.
Thanks to maturity, self-control, and good intentions, neither Ryan nor Romney stepped into the trap, but gave measured, gentlemanly-to-a-fault responses to all the barbs and provocations. The substance of the debates was NOT what the Democrats were shooting for (Although of course you would expect an incumbent President to have sufficient grasp of events, facts, and figures from his legions of official advisors and specialists to be able to soundly contest any challenger's attack in a debate). No, they wanted a 'Dean Scream,' and they failed utterly to obtain that in two tries. THAT is why Ryan and Romney won their debates in the strategic sense, even if they lacked the red meat the base wanted to see, and even if the badly-misnamed 'Points' (Being, in this case, actually 'Pointless') went more to the Dems than the GOP.