The gloves came completely off in last night’s presidential debate, in an explosive 90 minutes that sometimes appeared like the WWE.
From the opening hand shake, it was the Barack Obama show. The listless and tired looking impostor who appeared as the president in the first debate was nowhere to be found last night. The Barack Obama his supporters have come to know and love over the years made his presence known from the onset and was in rare form.
Mitt Romney tried to revive his tough guy approach from the last debate, frequently interrupting both President Obama and moderator Candy Crowley of CNN. At one point Mitt even raced toward the president, invading much too closely into his personal space and rudely disrespecting the office of the presidency. But President Obama was well prepared and used a full arsenal of upper cuts and jabs to put Romney in his place.
There were many high points of the night, like when Romney said as governor he had a “binder full of women” in Massachusetts whom he could consider for Cabinet positions. Really, Mitt? A “binder??” Another top moment was when Romney said the president refused to call the Libyan deaths a terrorist attack, but got fact-checked on live TV by Candy Crowley who confirmed that he did. “Say it louder, Candy,” Mr. Obama said, amidst chuckles from the crowd.
The president also made sure to remind voters of Romney’s back room “47%” remarks, a weapon many Obama supporters have been waiting to hear. But my favorite moment of the night came when Mr. Obama spoke touchingly about the deaths of Ambassador Stevens and the other Americans in Libya. The president absolutely lit into Romney on his attempt to gain political points by criticizing the administration during a press conference only hours after the attack. “That’s not how a Commander-In-Chief operates” Mr. Obama scolded. “You don’t turn national security into a political issue” he added while angrily looking Romney directly in the eye. If there was ever a “gotcha” moment, this was it!
An equal amount of Democratic and Republican voters were polled immediately following the debate and 46% considered President Obama the winner of the night, while 39% called Romney the winner. However, most political pundits agreed that President Obama successfully halted Romney’s momentum from the past few weeks, effectively making his chances for the presidency that much more difficult.
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