On the topic of the debate, it comes down to two issues: substance and style. On substance, it was pretty even, however Romney got the last word most of the time, so his 'substance' tended to win. On style, Romney simply destroyed Obama. Obama looked like a lost student that picked the wrong classroom on the first day of school and therefore couldn't understand a word of what the teacher, Romney, was saying; he just kept his head bowed and stared at his feet in shame. Quite simply, Obama was schooled.
I am not talking about the actual truthfulness of the arguments (policy wonks will argue those until they are blue in the face), and I am not talking about what each candidate was actually feeling. I am just stating how they came across to me (and apparently most of the U.S.). Romney looked Presidential, Obama looked beaten.
As for the Laffer Curve, it was taught in Econ 202, Intermediate Macro-economics, for me. I met Arthur Laffer as an undergrad (government/economics double major) at U of Virginia when he gave a small presentation to the Economics Department. Nice, very intelligent guy; not at all a crackpot. ;)