NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish Pubs Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > People and Politics > Obama wins debate as gloves come off and punches thrown -- President strong on Libya and women but Romney hung tough

People and Politics by Patrick Roberts

Obama wins debate as gloves come off and punches thrown -- President strong on Libya and women but Romney hung tough

Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 08:08 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

100 Comments

RSS

Archives

President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate and
former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney participate in the
second presidential debate at Hofstra University (Credit: ABC)

The gloves came off in the second presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, and it was clear after 90-plus minutes that each man actively disliked the other.

Unlike the first debate, there was no knockout punch, despite the fact that a lot more blows were thrown, but Obama will be happier that he finally went toe to toe with Romney, unlike his insipid performance in the first debate.

Obama won the debate on several key issues and the CNN poll showing a 46 per cent than 39 per cent for Obama was about right.

On Libya, Obama had his best moment of the debate, one that drew applause from the audience when he accused Romney of playing politics with the tragedy of our ambassador and three of his aides who were killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi last month.

Conservative bloggers were hoping all night that the Libya question would be raised, but when it was, Romney fluffed it, giving an incorrect version of what the president said in the White House Rose Garden the day after the attack.

Obama’s other best moments were on women’s issues and also strangely linked to foreign policy when he talked about ending the war in Iraq, killing Osama bin Laden, and drawing down our troops in Afghanistan.

Romney’s strong moments came when he listed a litany of broken promises Obama made before he became president, but failed to keep after taking office.

Overall, however, Romney seemed far less at ease than he was in the first debate, and it seemed clear that the town hall format didn’t suit him as well as lining up at a lectern CEO style without intervention from an audience.

Read more on the US Election 2012 here

The question remains whether last night’s debate will move the needle for Obama even a point or two in what has become an extremely tight election.

Democrats have a better ground game than Republicans. Obama had no primary challenger, and the Democrats were able to marshal their forces across the country and focus on issues like early voting and absentee ballots which experts say are trending in their direction.

But Obama’s biggest fear must be that enough Americans will decide that it is time for a change, and that Romney has performed sufficiently well to trust him with that change.

If that occurs, a great debate performance may not change enough minds.

With 21 days to go until Election Day, the odds still favor Obama because of the Electoral College math and the fact that he continues to hold slight but consistent leads in key states like Ohio.

There was a sense before this debate that momentum had shifted significantly to Romney.

Afterwards it was clear that most observers believe that Obama did enough to stop that slide.
But it would be a brave person to call this election with under three weeks to go.

There are still mistakes to be made, accusations to take flight, and who knows, maybe even another October surprise.

E-mail

100 comments

Next Previous Page 3 of 7 pages

Smyrnian | Oct 17, 2012, 09:14 PM EDT

BigDaddy - your breathless and incoherent rant has absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter of my posting. Slow down, take a deep breath, relax a bit and be cool. Take it easy, man.

Report abuse

Stiofain | Oct 17, 2012, 08:59 PM EDT

Sean: How about the people on Social Security and Medicare who are voting for Romney/Ryan.

Report abuse

BigDaddy | Oct 17, 2012, 08:54 PM EDT

Smyrnian...Why is it that people who support the corporate backed Romney must cry like little girls with skinned knees when they don't get what they believe they are entitled to? I don't remember reading this BS after the last debate when the "liberals" claimed that Romney won. If you and your ideas are so superior, why must you cheat to win? I believe that the Leo Strauss philosophy practiced by the corporate masters is as weak as the economic theory of Milton Friedman. If you don't know what I am talking about, you should because that is what is determining your life these days. Oh yeah, that and your free choice.

Report abuse

seanomelb | Oct 17, 2012, 07:26 PM EDT

rpbrown I have written on IC blogs on this very subject for some months now. How can middle class GOP voters vote to give themselves a tax rise and give the uber rich a tax cut??it beggars belief.Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.But not to worry the NRA will facilitate the shooting.

Report abuse

conorsmom | Oct 17, 2012, 07:09 PM EDT

Micky74007- I have read a lot of CRAP regarding this article, but you have made me embarrassed to be an Irish American!! A black faced pinnocle? First of all don't really know what word you were trying to spell? Really? Maybe you should watch a little more of big bird learn to spell and become an adult and stop wishing for a fake bazilionair like Mitts to fix all YOUR problems..

Report abuse

IrishAndProud | Oct 17, 2012, 06:27 PM EDT

Obama needed an outright WIN on this debate to make up for his last one, but aside from those who backed Obama anyway the best I've seen for Obama is that it was a draw...and since he's the one who's been in power the last four years the burden was on him to not only win the debate but to do so by pointing to his record thus far, AND tell us what he wants for the next four years, also. He did neither. All he could do was attack Romney, and nothing else...and at best he drew even, on that. Perhaps that's why today Gallup has him even FURTHER behind Romney (51-45) than yesterday. Obama continues to plummet...and with the economy as it is, you cannot suddenly, magically get ahead of Romney by both ignoring the economy and attacking Romney. That doesn't work. Romney won the first debate, and held his own, last night...disproving the ficticious persona that Obama had tried to craft, of him. Obama's people may try to pretend otherwise, but the man is going down. He cannot win, with things as they are. It is politically impossible, my friends...and that's a wee bit bigger than me; that's reality.

Report abuse

jetsnoone | Oct 17, 2012, 06:26 PM EDT

rpbrown: Obama is an anti-American, anti-Catholic communist....communism is evil, just read about what the Blessed Mother said at Fatima.....let's send your Moslem friend on a long vacation to Hawaii...

Report abuse

rpbrown | Oct 17, 2012, 06:19 PM EDT

I really do not understand how so many people who are middle class are against our current president. He worked to make sure you will no longer be denied healthcare for pre-existing conditions, he wants to tax the wealthy their fair share (which they haven't been), he is steadily working to improve trade agreements, he's protecting our environment more than our last president and he wishes for all americans to have equal rights. I think the real reason why people like Mitt Romney is that they don't like hard work. Mitt Romney tells pretty lies and it's easier to think if they just elect him and sit back for four years America will be saved. GETTING OUT OF OUR PROBLEMS NOW TAKES TIME AND HARD WORK, DON'T BUY ROMNEY'S SNAKE OIL THAT HE CAN FIX ALL OF THEM OVERNIGHT WITH SOME PHONEY RE-WRITING OF THE TAX CODE. Which by the way, he says he will have tax cuts for the wealthy adjusted by the closing of tax loopholes and adjustments, but what will happen is the cuts will happen and the loophole cuts won't. STOP THIS MADNESS! RE-ELECT OUR PRESIDENT WHO HAS SHOWN HE IS COMMITTED TO MAKING CHANGES AND THEN RIDE HIM AND CONGRESS HARD FOR FOUR YEARS TO MAKE SURE THEY DO!

Report abuse

Smyrnian | Oct 17, 2012, 06:16 PM EDT

Irish Central is simply a blog. It should start all headlines and every paragraph with the statement "in the liberal opinion of Irish Central". That would clarify things for the average reader who thinks he/she is actually reading news.

Report abuse

Canal Rat | Oct 17, 2012, 06:11 PM EDT

The President strong on Libya? If Bush had sent out his minions to say for 2 weeks that to the "best of our knowledge" the attack was a spontaneous protest in response to a film, the media would be eating him ALIVE.

Report abuse

PiperMac52 | Oct 17, 2012, 05:57 PM EDT

Now that is a subjective opinion if ever there was one. I and many others do not see it that way. Obama spent the time attacking Romney and trying to defend his dismal record. He gave NO specifics as to what he will do differently in the next four years to get us out of the greatest economic slump since the great depression.

Report abuse

seanomelb | Oct 17, 2012, 05:35 PM EDT

A box of tissues for all the usual teabaggers naysayers on IC today!! Romney stuffed it his "no detail" policies area big lie.Obama gave "etch and Sketch" a lesson in consistency of policy debate.

Report abuse

ceceann | Oct 17, 2012, 04:15 PM EDT

I found it interesting that the President knows what is in Romney's Blind Trust(no one but the Trustee should know this) but claims not to know what his own investment/pension plan holds. Why should I care more about how Romney handles his own money than how the President handles his and ours? No wonder the Nation's finances are in such a mess.

Report abuse

irishamerica46 | Oct 17, 2012, 03:57 PM EDT

"Candy" appears to be on the White House payroll.Obama never called it a terrorist attack that killed that poor Ambassador.He went off to Las Vegas to politic.Now Hilliary takes the blame the day of the debate. Go figure!They need unbiased moderators. Candy was a joke with a big mouth who never shut up!

Report abuse

Gearoid4 | Oct 17, 2012, 03:48 PM EDT

Obama did make a better showing during the second round of the 3 scheduled presidential campaign debates, but not enough to put the election beyond doubt. Romney held his nerve despite the vigorous barrage unleashed on him by his opponent, and came out relatively unscathed. Despite one gaffe concerning his erroneous claim that it took Obama 2 weeks to acknowledge the recent terror attack on Libya, Romney landed some decent punches concerning the inept handling of the current administration of the US economy. As Obama's predecessor and mentor, Bill Clinton famously stated.."It's the economy, stupid!"

Report abuse

Next Previous Page 3 of 7 pages