* BHO misses opportunity to mention that Paul Ryan author of Social Security privatization proposal.

* Obama very professorial on Medicare. Needs a little more passion.

* Was about to say Mitt back-tracking on “Medicare cuts.” Had to correct himself.

* Pretty good BHO riff on Medicare vouchers. Mitt responds by repeating himself. I also think he’s making a mistake dissing traditional Medicare.

* Mitt making passionate defense of regulation. Conservative heads explode.

* Almost always a mistake to use programmatic language like “Dodd/Frank.” Most listeners figure it’s a brand of hot dogs.

* Don’t think Romney ought to get drawn into extended discussion of bank regulations.

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Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.