. >> if you look at romney's opening statements, he touched alheeed to.e talked about voters in ohio and nevada. i feel your pain. gwen: told stories. >> told stories. he did the five things he's running on. he talked about the president's past. respectfully said it wasn't going in the right direction. then 0 minutes later after a good cut and thrust between the two of them he delivered a near-flawless closing argument as if he were reading from a teleprompter -- he wasn't. the president's closing argument was meandering. >> i don't think it was all orhe pde. i agree with everything that's been said about governor romney. he had a great night. gwen: he came to play. >> that's right. he practic took me off from t it paid off big time. he solidifyed that base and boy, did he have to do that. gwen: and he closed that likeability gap for a lot of people. >> yes, but what the president did was -- he did some subtle things and when you think about who are the persuadeable voters out there, he spoke to them. so while romney was on a lot of defense, the president