Photo Gallery The Second TV Battle
US President Barack Obama showed up for Tuesday's debate ready to show a lot more energy than he did in the first one in Denver. Most analysts believe that the incumbent emerged victorious versus Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The debate took place at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.
Obama abandoned the aloof bearing he cultivated in the first debate and jumped into the trenches, accusing Romney of not telling the truth on numerous occassions.
Obama landed several verbal punches. "Gov. Romney doesnt have a five-point plan," Obama said at one point. "He has a one-point plan. And that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules."
Romney was eager to repeat his success in the first debate in Denver. He again blasted Obama on the deficit and on jobs, making the case that as an experienced businessman, he would be the better manager of the economy.
Obama and Romney met in a "town hall" format and answered questions from 80 voters who claimed to be undecided. After the debate, Twitter exploded with Romney's reference to receiving "binders full of women" when looking for candidates for his cabinet when governor of Massachusetts.
The debate was monitored by Candy Crowley of CNN. She caught Romney out in a half-truth during a discussion on the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The moment turned into a defining one for the Republican challenger's debate performance.
Romney didn't hold back on attacks against Obama. "When we're talking about math that doesn't add up," he said at one point, "how about $5 trillion of deficits over the last four years. That's math that doesn't add up."
But Obama gave as good as he got this time around. "Gov. Romney was a very successful investor," Obama said. "If somebody came to you, governor, with a plan that said, Here, I want to spend $7 or $8 trillion and were going to pay for it but we cant tell you until maybe after the election how were going to do it. You wouldnt have taken such a sketchy deal and neither would you, the American people."
Barack Obama was heavily criticized for being too passive in the first debate. He corrected the problem in the second.
"We have fewer people working today than we had when the president took office," Romney said. "We have not made the progress we need to make to put people back to work." Most analysts seemed to agree that Obama had eeked out a victory in the debate.
