At the end of the clip below, NBC's Chuck Todd appears to catch at gaffe in which Gibbs accidentally blew up debate expectations by promising an "exceptionally strong debate performance" from Obama tonight. But I'm not so sure.

Watch for yourself:

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Prior to the first debate, when Chris Christie promised that Romney would change everything  in that showdown with Obama, that was no gaffe. After weeks of watching a seemingly helpless Romney get pummeled by the corrupt media, Christie was hoping to pump up demoralized rank-and-file Republicans. That's probably what Gibbs feels the need to do here. With the polls moving against them and Biden providing nothing more than a quick high (before his Libya comments blew up in the White House's face), Democrats need to feel better now, not 12 hours from now.

If Gibbs made a gaffe, it's not that big of a deal. If Gibbs did this intentionally (and I think he did), it shows just how bad things are for the president.

Regardless, Gibbs looks worried. You can see it in the clip. But it's easy to see why. The Obama campaign's problem reminds me of the famous quote from John Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance": When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

"Printing the legend" of Barack Obama is what the corrupt media's been doing for years now. But there's not much the corrupt media can do when "the fact" of Obama shows up unfiltered for 90 minutes.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC