Why today was a good day for Mitt Romney.

Every day until the election, Slate will offer up one reason to be optimistic for your candidate.

21 days to go:

Today’s Good News for Romney: Romney is reaping the benefits of his first knockout debate performance: Campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul says that in the first two weeks of October, Romney raised more than $27 million in online donations, more than in any previous month. Before the debate, Romney raised $170 million total in September, almost matching Obama’s $181 million. Since then, Romney’s winning performance has encouraged small donors to pony up—and that influx of cash could go a long way in the final weeks before the election.

See Mitt Romney’s earlier rays of hope.

See Barack Obama’s earlier rays of hope.