Presidential challengers almost always prevail over the incumbent in the first debate of the campaign, and to that end Mitt Romney and Barack Obama did not buck tradition as they faced off last night. But winning the Wednesday night battle might may come with some strings attached for the Republican candidate.

Despite his empty rhetoric about trickle down government (a meaningless phrase, by the way) Romney continually invoked the ideals of trickle up economics in his attempt to woo voters. The guy who deplores the 47 percent and thinks corporations are people made overtures to the middle class all night long … if you think anything about a Mitt Romney administration would benefit the middle class rather than the 1 percent, I’ve got some swamp land in Florida to sell you, and I’ll bet Dems use this flip-flop to their advantage throughout the rest of the race.

But that’s just one take … here are a slew of others, none so favorable to the president as mine…

The ProJo gets wise to the shady ways of True the Vote, a tea party-started group that is trying to purge voter rolls.

Ted Nesi on how close the polls show Angel Taveras and Gina Raimondo, the odds-on-favorites to be the next governor of Rhode Island: “they’re exactly tied at 57.9% statewide and exactly tied at 59.3% among Democrats. Raimondo’s approval rating among union households is slightly higher than Taveras’s, but Taveras has a bit more room to grow since fewer voters have a negative opinion of him and more don’t know him at all.”

Frequent RI Future contributor Mark Binder has turned to a former friend of his opponent Gordon Fox to run his campaign, according to GoLocal.

“I’m not going to say there’s a racial angle, but I’m not going to rule it out,” said James Vincent, president of the Providence chapter of the NAACP told the ProJo about embattled RIPTA head Charles Odimgbe’s suspension.

Planned Parenthood and local Dems tied Brendan Doherty to the Republican-fuled war against women. He attended a Women for Doherty event at the Westin, while outside liberal activists held a Women Are Watching counter-event.

Call me crazy, but I don’t think the fact that Claus von Bulow was accused of poisoning his wife in a Newport mansion necessarily makes it a more desirable place to own.

In the name of all things sacred in New England, please let Curt Schilling keep his bloody sock.

On this day in 1970, Janis Joplin died way too young … how can you not love a woman who sings with this much soul…