"...All The World's A Stage...And Both Major Party Standard Bearers Merely Players...."

It has been, at this writing, almost twenty four hours since the beginning of the first presidential debate of 2012.

In this instant news culture, that translates to this:

Almost everything and/or anything new that can be said about the performance of the two candidates has already been said.

So, here's politics in plain english.

The consensus seems to be that Mitt Romney outperformed Barack Obama.

And that Obama's performance was surprisingly lackluster, unfocused and, essentially, disappointing.

As to who "won"?

Awarding of that recognition to either candidate is academic.

Because those who supported Romney going in still support him.

Those who supported Obama going in still support him.

But in a culture that measures almost everything in terms of style as opposed to substance, the inferior performance always inevitably must concede "defeat" to the superior.

And though it was most surely not his intention, Barack Obama proved something last night that has been lurking around the edges of conventional wisdom since at least the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, just waiting for the right time to be accepted into the mainstream.

The art of politics has been forever replaced.

By the art of performance.

And candidates will no longer be required to sell us on their ability to do the job.

But simply their ability to play the part.