Last night’s debate brought a number of what seem — at first blush — like novel developments: Pivots on critical issues by Romney; the president leaving out seemingly obvious talking points.

“It is not surprising, and the third element where Romney tacked to the center was compromise,” says Frank Newport, editor-in-cheif of Gallup. Also, not so surprising was the president’s choice leave out Romney’s 47 percent comments. “Our polling shows that Americans are actually sympathetic to the themes that Romney was making with the 47 percent,” says Newport, with almost two-thirds stating that Americans are too dependent on the government.

Looking forward to the vice presidential debate next week, American’s favorability of Biden and Ryan are about equal. Newport says not to statke too much on the face-off though, “hard to say based on history that the VEEP debate is going to make much difference in the overall outcome.”