In second US presidential debate, Obama stays sharp to a brittle Romney

From the first answer of the debate, Democrats were relieved to see President Barack Obama defend his four-year record with enthusiasm and clarity. The slugfest with Republican contender Mitt Romney restored parity to the race, with pundits giving Obama a narrow win, and Romney mostly reprising his effective performance from the first debate, albeit interspersed with a few brittle moments. Based on a count of a transcript of the debate, after accounting for some stumbling and cross-talk, Obama also won in sheer verbiage: He uttered 8,260 words to Romney’s 7,207.

The first question, from a student named Jeremy about his  job prospects, set a tone: Romney laid out a scathing critique of the last four years without offering much in the way of an agenda, while Obama defended the specifics of his record and the plans ahead, assigning blame to the previous Bush administration and implying, with a large degree of accuracy, that Romney has the same plans.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Romney swings back crisply, ticking off unkept promises of Obama from deficits to immigration—
Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) October 17, 2012

Romney trying to tie Obama to every trouble of last four years. Obama trying to tie Romney to every trouble of Bush four years.—
David Grann (@DavidGrann) October 17, 2012

Then it was on to gas prices, where Mitt Romney assigned more responsibility to government than is strictly, well, true, and the exchange quickly became testy.

"The proof of whether the strategy is working or not, is whether you're paying higher prices at the pump." Wow, the chutzpah.—
felix salmon (@felixsalmon) October 17, 2012

Astonishing to me that we're still fighting over who can be most pro-fossil fuels in the year 2012. #debates—
Lydia DePillis (@lydiadepillis) October 17, 2012

On to tax reform, where the candidates went back-and-forth over the specifics of Mitt Romney’s tax plans.

Romney's math is so obviously wrong: You can't 1) cut taxes on middle class, 2) ask rich people to pay the same and 3) not reduce revenue.—
Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) October 17, 2012

Both candidates stress middle class tax relief. This is one of few areas of tax policy where both parties wholeheartedly agree. #Hofdebate—
Nancy Cook (@nancook) October 17, 2012

Obama's claim that Romney tax plan doesn't add up got a Mostly True. ow.ly/ex9NK #debate—
PolitiFact (@politifact) October 17, 2012

The president got a favorable question about pay equity for women: he signed a law protecting the rights of women to sue for workplace discrimination; Romney couldn’t take a position on it for months. In his response, Romney mentioned recruiting female staff with “binders full of women,” an instant meme.

There were some poor economic analogies:

Romney compares the US to Greece. This is bollocks, nonsense, and horseshit. Either rhetorical excess, or he doesn't understand economics.—
Justin Wolfers (@justinwolfers) October 17, 2012

Immigration came up—finally—and sure enough it was tough for Romney, who associated himself with anti-immigration conservatives during his primary race.

That's Kris Kobach Obama's referring to as Romney "adviser." Here's his interview w/ @NewsHour: to.pbs.org/R3B5bj—
Christina Bellantoni (@cbellantoni) October 17, 2012

Tonight, @MittRomney really lost the votes of Latinos, many of whom have friends/relatives whom Romney just referred to as "illegals"—
Jose Antonio Vargas (@joseiswriting) October 17, 2012

Unseemly China bashing from both candidates, but Romney promised tariffs on Chinese currency to battle depreciation:

Tariffs to offset China currency manipulation? Many analysts now feel RMB is near fair value—
Lucy Hornby (@HornbyLucy) October 17, 2012

The turning, point, though was a question about the aftermath of the Benghazi attacks, where four US citizens were killed, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Although it might have been the moment that Romney had been waiting for, Obama kept cool, with the eventual support of moderator Candy Crowley who said Romney was wrong to assert that Obama hadn’t publicly recognized the attack as terrorism.

Premise of this question is false. No requests denied to Benghazi: thinkprogress.org/security/2012/…—
Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp) October 17, 2012

Obama won the Libya question because he seemed like he was genuinely angry/upset about people being killed.—
  (@AdamSerwer) October 17, 2012

A last question about gun control inspired jokes among the left when Romney pivoted to family policy, but..

"If it's a legitimate shooting a two-parent family has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."—
Megan Greenwell (@megreenwell) October 17, 2012

Liberal tweeps mock Romney's gun control-to-parents pivot — but Obama just echoed it. Because it's smart.—
Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) October 17, 2012

Voter preferences were revealed.

Weird that none of these undecided voters seem to share the D.C. media's obsession with budget deficits.—
brad plumer (@bradplumer) October 17, 2012

The results:

CBS News KN poll of 500 uncommitted voters. Who won? Obama 37, Romney 30, Tie 33—
Mark Blumenthal (@MysteryPollster) October 17, 2012

More from CBS News poll: 56% of uncommitted voters say Pres Obama would do a better job helping the middle class; 43% say Romney would.—
Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 17, 2012

OK, so at the end of the debate, InTrade sees a 91% chance that Obama won. Presumably the other 9% is due to the chance of sampling error.—
Justin Wolfers (@justinwolfers) October 17, 2012