While Republican candidate Mitt Romney dominated Wednesday night's first U.S. presidential debate, he must bring that energy to the next round amid an election where he is trailing President Barack Obama in the polls, analysts said Thursday.

Romney's unexpected strong performance in the debate breathed new life into his campaign, but he must continue to build on his victory, Republican strategist Ford O'Connell said.

"This was a good start, but Romney's got a long way to go," O'Connell said. "He's got to keep going, keep selling himself as a principled but practical candidate who is willing to work across party lines to fix America's problems."

Boding well for the challenger is that 67 percent of viewers said Romney won the face-off, according to a CNN poll. No candidate has topped the 60 percent mark since that question was first asked in 1984, CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.

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Mitt Romney’s campaign was noticeably more confident on Thursday, a day after the Republican candidate was widely judged to have beaten President Obama in the first presidential debate.

Aides and surrogates seemed invigorated by Romney's performance, and were more combative in public.

“Romney really breathed new life into his campaign, that’s for sure — it's too bad we didn't see this Romney sooner because he could have been leading in the polls,” said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell. “This was the Massachusetts moderate that Democrats feared, and he showed that he was a principled but practical conservative willing to reach across party lines.”

Read more from Justin Sink at The Hill

Tingling feeling? Not so much for Chris Matthews. The MSNBC commentator was like a parent whose kid brought home a bad report card after President Obama delivered a lackluster performance in the first of the three presidential debates last night in Denver.

"Where was Obama tonight," asked Matthews, who has carried the president's water--with a tingling feeling up his leg--for going on five years now. "What was he doing?"

What he was doing was letting his challenger back in the race. The fading Mitt Romney, the one who can't get out of his own way, whose campaign seemed to be reeling, particularly in battleground states, is no more. Today, he is surging, and the wind is clearly at his back.

Make no mistake, this was a game-changer. CNN said 67 percent of those who watched thought challenger Mitt Romney won--the highest percentage since the question was first asked in 1984. He won among independents and the undecided. On taxes, the economy, the budget deficit, and the reach of government, he outperformed the president by double-digit margins.

Read more from Ford O'Connell at U.S. News & World Report

The final month of the 2012 presidential race just got more interesting.

By turning in a stronger debate performance than President Obama – the instant post-game consensus of  Republicans, Democrats, and voters themselves – GOP nominee Mitt Romney has injected new life into a campaign that had nearly been given up for dead, despite only a slim deficit in polls.

Indeed, Romney had to do well in Wednesday’s debate, or the half-written obituaries on his campaign would likely have been completed. Perhaps Romney’s biggest regret will be that the debates started so late in the campaign. Early voting has already started in some states, including Ohio, arguably the most crucial battleground in the country, which opened its polls on Tuesday. No Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio.

“It's too bad that voters didn't see this Romney sooner,” says Republican strategist Ford O’Connell, suggesting that the former governor showed glimpses of the "reasonable, practical" Massachusetts moderate whom Democrats feared. “The only person who had a worse night than President Obama was Sesame Street's Big Bird.”

Read more from Linda Feldmann at The Christian Science Monitor 

In Denver, Mitt Romney commanded the debate and showed glimpses of the reasonable, practical Massachusetts moderate who Democrats feared. If he keeps this up, there will be a new occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue come 2013. It's just too bad that voters didn't see this Romney sooner.

Read more from Ford O'Connell at Politico's "The Arena"

Darrell West, vice-president of governance studies at the Brookings Institution and Republican strategist Ford O'Connell find the peaks and valleys in the first of three debates between President Barack Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney.

From Nate Silver at The New York Times:

Conventional wisdom holds that the first presidential debate offers an especially good opportunity for the challenging candidate, who for the first time gets to stand on a literal public stage, and a proverbial level playing field, with the incumbent president.

As much as we like to debunk the conventional wisdom at FiveThirtyEight, this hypothesis has the ring of empirical truth to it. There are no guarantees for Mitt Romney, and if he makes gains in the polls following Wednesday night’s debate in Denver, they will probably be fairly modest. But if historical precedent is any guide, he is more likely than not to see his standing improve at least some.

This analysis will be quite simple: I’ve made a comparison of the polls just before and just after the presidential debate in years dating back to 1976.

[O]n average, the challenging-party candidate gained a net of one and a half percentage points on the incumbent-party candidate.

The stakes are high for Mitt Romney in Wednesday's US presidential debate, as the Republican challenger cannot afford a mediocre performance in a race where he lags behind nationally by nearly four points, analysts say.

"This is the biggest moment of his political life," said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell.

Indeed, 50 million viewers are expected to watch the debate, but many may not tune into the second installment if Romney fails to make a strong showing on Wednesday, and the contender needs to keep audiences tuned into the entire series.

A break from the past and a vision for the future

To be successful, Romney must convince voters of what he believes is President Barack Obama's failure to steer the economy in the right direction, O'Connell said, as the economy is undergoing a sluggish recovery from one of the worst recessions in decades.

At the same time, he must show he has a vision for the future, analysts say.

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Nate Silver, the New York Times's political stat guru, says Mitt Romney trails President Barack Obama by a touchdown in the fourth quarter. I would say he is down 10 with no timeouts, but it's hard to know given the confusion over polling methods andsuspicions among many that the current polls are substantially less accurate than in recent elections.

But that's not the football analogy Romney should focus on in his debate with the president on Wednesday night in Denver. He should paint President Obama as a coach who took over a team four years ago. The team was in some disarray and needed a strong leader to turn things around. Four years later, it's time to decide whether to extend that coach's contract.

But if Romney doesn't take advantage of this huge opportunity—50 million people watching; Jim Lehrer, a true pro, officiating; and a nation wanting change—the president will emerge with a two touchdown lead and, in all likelihood, that long-sought contract extension.

Read more from Ford O'Connell at U.S. News & World Report

Mitt Romney’s aides aren’t even bothering with the usual game of lowering expectations for their candidate ahead of his Oct. 3 debate in Denver. With President Obama solidifying leads in almost every battleground state, Romney needs a dominant performance to change the dynamic, and everyone knows it.

Assuming Obama maintains his polling edge, his debate checklist is clear: hold his own against Romney’s attacks and avoid any major missteps. Romney’s path is much more complex and varied. Here are a few of the boxes he needs to check off in a successful matchup.

• Fire Up Early Voters

Sure Romney’s in rough shape, but the only poll that matters is on Nov. 6, right? Wrong. The debates aren’t just a preview to Election Day, they actually come just as voters hit the polls in key states.

“The first debate is key because Iowa and Ohio will open early voting [in] the week before,” Republican strategist Ford O’Connell told TPM. “And those are two states he’s really got his eye on on the way to 270. Clearly he’s behind the eight ball in Ohio, but even if he wins Ohio, Florida and Virginia he sill needs another state — and the question is then does it become Iowa, New Hampshire or Colorado?”

As a result, the debates may offer Romney his last best chance to convince voters he’s the only candidate who can turn the economy around.

Read more from Benjay Sarlin and Evan McMorris-Santoro at TPM