This second debate appears to have gone to President Barack Obama, where as challenger Former Governor Mitt Romney attempted to repeat his winning performance in the first debate. Romney seemed slightly more agitated and less at ease, where as Obama was noticeably more aggressive, even openly expressing “being offended”, with a glare in his eye. Moderator Candy Crowley, a CNN journalist, was strong in keeping both debaters to stay on topic, much more so than the first debate’s moderator, Jim Lehrer.
[Continuing coverage of the Debates on Learnist]
A Tweet Roundup of key moments:
Longtime analyst Howard Fineman on the end result
The consensus hardens fast: Obama had a binder full of victory tonight: pay equity, Rose Garden, pension size, etc.
— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman) October 17, 2012
On unemployment
Unemployment Rate 2008-2012 i.imgur.com/2wYre.png #debates #sunlive
— Sunlight Foundation (@SunFoundation) October 17, 2012
President Obama mentioned the GOP Congress twice, something not at all touched upon in round one:
#Obama brings up GOP #congress obstructionism :0 ! Guess he learned from debate 1 fail #debates
— Jesse Parent (@jpinfluence) October 17, 2012
Libya was an interesting topic. When it first came up tonight (and considering the last few days of media discourse), I felt that Romney and Co. were winning, because they are talking about how again “Obama failed”, shifting attention away from the widely perceived blunder of Romney’s pre-emptive statement. The GOP’s strategy of finding fault with the Dems, I thought, was working here. And while there is still debating about who is “right”, (if you ask a partisan, they’ll say their party won). Leave a comment below – who do you think came out on top of this?
Romney attacks Obama on ‘what happened directly after Libya’ – ‘takes a lotta brass’ — Jesse Parent (@jpinfluence) October 17, 2012
… but Obama fires back, saying that he got offended, and then the soon-to-be-infamous comments about Libya and terrorism (or not)…
(video in comments)
I think Romney’s best moment of the night was a question that very much favored him – when a past Obama voter wasn’t sure about repeating his choice this year:
Romney’s response to the “why to vote for obama question” is good. Props. — Jesse Parent (@jpinfluence) October 17, 2012
Romney have a very good explanation on a point-by-point basis of why he would be better than Obama.
The closing remarks, which I currently don’t have a video for, seemed to be in Obama’s favor. Romney for no apparent reason mentioned percentages, and tried to impress upon people that he was for 100% of Americans. The only reason he’d do that is if he thought he was hurting from the 47% remarks he made earlier… which Obama capitalized on in his response.
Also, the biggest meme from the debate is an awkward remark by Romney about “Binders Full of Women”, which apparently he was given during his time as MA Governor. It was apparently an attempt to explain to voters how he has experience in giving women a level playing field, but, has become a tumblr full of memes…
http://bindersfullofwomen.tumblr.com
On the interactions between the two candidates:
@howardfineman Unfortunately, that’s how US is today, no? Got to wonder who really benefits from such divisiveness… #debate
— Jesse Parent (@jpinfluence) October 17, 2012
There is a great deal of speculation in the post-debate commentary that these kinds of actions will ultimately turn people off. The moderator was challenged more than once by the candidates, but overall, CNN’s Candy Crowley did fairly well in standing her ground. The GOP is assaulting her on siding with Obama over the Libya, but
Finally, there were a number of issues that still haven’t been brought up, or, perhaps were mentioned awkwardly (at best)
- No discussion about LGBT issues, or “gay marriage”
- No mention of climate change
- A very odd explanation of energy, which ended up being a contest about who was more pro-fossil fuel and coal
- Little discussion about women’s contraception or abortion.
- Mitt Romney essentially dodged questions about immigration
#selfdeportation was created by Daniel D. Portado thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/02… and it’s now a #debate question? Unreal
— Jesse Parent (@jpinfluence) October 17, 2012
In general, polls (CBS 37-30 Obama Victory; CNN 46-39) are favoring Obama post-debate.
We’ll have more coverage into Wednesday, after the dust settles…
MSNBC is happy. Fox News a little less so.
- – -
For more of Jesse’s thoughts throughout the week and to see what news he’s following, you are invited to join the conversation via Twitter and Facebook.
2 thoughts on “Tuesday Night Roundup: Who Won? Obama, following Biden’s lead, has a stronger debate showing”