Presidential Debate #2 - what did you think?

[Barry]

I just watched the debate and I'm glad to be able to enthusiastically support Obama again. After the first debate, I didn't know if he was still up to the job. Tonight, he was the president that I thought he was, for better and worse.

If you missed it, the full debate is here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEpCrcMF5Ps&feature=g-all-u).

Four moments stick with me:

1) My favorite bit (starting at the 19 min mark) , which I haven't seen on any of the highlight reel so far, was at the end of the discussion of gas prices, Obama said that Romney may well be able to bring down gas prices by implementing the same policies that George W. Bush did that caused the great recession! And even better, one of the people in the background broke out into a big smile!

2) While it was nice to see Obama be more aggressive in general, there was a point where I thought he was too aggressive with the moderator and did himself a disservice. Maybe it's just that I side with the moderator! :wink:

3) Obama did manage this squeak in the 47% comment at the very end which happened to be very good timing, but for the second time he let Romney take the mantle of bipartisanship and did not push back with how Mitch McConnell and the Republicans put defeating Obama ahead of the national interest and didn't excellent job of blocking every Obama initiative by exploiting the filibuster rules.

4) On the question of Romney vs Bush, Obama failed to align Romney's policies with Bush, including if a big tax cut would create jobs, why didn't the Bush tax cut create jobs.

But in general OIbama did an adequate job of push back, and a better job of defending his record. I still heard precious little about what he want to do over the next four years.

I'm heartened to see that the current Fox News poll on who won the debate has Obama winning 70 - 30!

What did you think?

[Peacetown Jonathan]

I don't agree with point 1; I thought this was not helpful for Obama, because many Americans will simply "hear" that Obama will not "make" their gas prices go down and Romney will. I think Obama could have done better saying that gas prices flow with international spot oil markets, which represent only 1% of oil contracts but impact the price of all gas. And that global demand, not USa demand, impacts that price.

Anyway, I thought that Obama prevailed; he was relaxed, clear sighted, and looked engaged and competent. He mentioned the 47% effectively, Romney's tax rate,etc.

What he did NOT do, in this or the other debate, is ask HOW ONE SINGLE JOB WILL RESULT FROM ROMENY'S DEFICIT BALLOONING TAX CUTS AND TAX HANDOUTS TO large corporations and centimillionaires. There is no there there. I heard Romney's "five point plan" and it has nothing to do with jobs. We have the LOWEST taxes paid by billionaires and corporations in modern history, the highest profits for each class, and THEY ARE NOT CREATING JOBS. More of the same is Romney's prescription. I wish Obama would call him on this? It would deflate this whole mystique that Romney will "create" jobs.



1) My favorite bit (starting at the 19 min mark) , which I haven't seen on any of the highlight reel so far, was at the end of the discussion of gas prices, Obama said that Romney may well be able to bring down gas prices by implementing the same policies that George W. Bush did that caused the great recession! And even better, one of the people in the background broke out into a big smile!

[NathanSW]

I agree with much of your analysis, Barry. But I think some of the deficiencies in his arguments were actually intelligent political decisions. If he talked about how Republicans have obstructed his agenda, that could actually become a Republican talking point about how he supposedly cannot work on a bipartisan basis, makes him look like a whiner, and it would be a good argument for putting a Republican in the Oval office so he can work with the Congress with whom Obama can get no traction outside of his Party. The Republican obstructionism is a good talking point for the Left, but a losing strategy in the fight for the center.

He did talk about how Romney wants to take us back to the policies that got us here, and he even made Romney look like he was to the RIGHT of Bush. But he made that point on social issues, not taxes, so it was a missed opportunity. Still, I think the meme that Obama has been blaming Bush for too long, while inaccurate because that f*#%ker really did a number on us, has started to take root amongst independents, and again he doesn't want to come across as a whiner.

I thought the comment about gas prices was fantastic, as well, and should get more play. I also loved his riposte on his pension, and he finally managed to take the moral high ground on the near-non-issue of the early reports on what happened in Benghazi.

I loved it when he said, "Please proceed, Governor." Romney almost didn't know what to say, sputtered over his own words, and finally walked into his own trap, putting the moderator in the unique position of fact-checking Romney's lie on the spot.

I don't think Romney did terrible. His base won't be nearly as dejected afterward as Obama's was after the first debate. But Biden staunched the bleeding in the VP debate, and Obama really took command and out-shined Romney considerably. And now with all the fact checking going on in the blogosphere, and the "binders full of women" meme taking off, momentum has definitely shifted back to Obama. We'll see in a few days how all of this has affected the opinions of uncommitted voters.