'Feistier' Obama Surfaces

Obama fans might take heart. The man they wanted to show up at last night's debate finally surfaced at a rally in Denver today. Stories are using words like "feistier" (Washington Post), "aggressive" (the AP), "coming out swinging" (the Hill), and "fired up" (Politico) to describe the president's speech. Some examples:

• That "very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney" last night must have been an imposter, said Obama, because "the real Mitt Romney has been running around the country all year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthy, but the fellow onstage last night did not know anything about that."
• "The Mitt Romney we all know invested in companies that were pioneers in outsourcing. But the guy onstage last night said he doesn’t even know about laws that encourage offshoring."
• “I mean thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on Big Bird. It’s about time. We didn’t know that Big Bird was driving the federal deficit. But that’s what we heard last night. Elmo, too?"
• “Gov. Romney may dance around his positions, but if you want to be president, you owe the American people the truth."
• The Romney camp dismissed it all as "damage control."

The president adjusted to the altitude, apparently? (More Obama 2012 stories.)