Presidential nominees Mitt Romney and Barack Obama went at it in the first presidential debate of the election season on Oct. 3. Though many can argue both sides displayed some strong attributes, a recent poll revealed a clear winner.

An informal poll of NBC 5 viewers voted 1,946 to 933 that Gov. Romney prevailed, according to the network. 

They also noted that some analysts called President Obama's performance "lackluster and wondered what happened to the key points of his Chicago-based campaign."

Some attribute Romney's success to his personable, charming demeanor, but a column in the National Journal claimed it was Obama's debate to lose, and the reason he didn't do better was "the curse of incumbency."

"Like many of his predecessors, President Obama fell victim Wednesday night to high expectations, a short fuse and a hungry challenger," columnist Ron Fournier wrote immediately following the debate's conclusion.

The op-ed attributed Obama's performance to several factors, including that a sitting president has less time to prepare for a debate than a challenger who can focus completely on the campaign, as well as the fact that many Americans anticipate the current president will win any debate, which creates lofty expectations that are not easily met.

However, senior advisor David Axelrod spoke in defence of the president, saying that Romney gave a fact-less "performance" where he stated that he would cut taxes and increase defense spending without actually saying how he would do it. 

"I expected a strong performance, I got a strong performance, but that's what it was, a performance," Axelrod said. "The underlying facts remain the underlying facts. He denied what has been the centerpiece of his campaign, a $5 trillion tax cut, he again refused to offer any way to pay for it."

Tags: presidential debate 2012