Supporters of President Barack Obama asked for a more aggressive, engaged performance in the second presidential debate and he did not disappoint. Surprising an arrogant, complacent, and, at times, belligerent Mitt Romney with his insistence of letting lies stand as facts, a focused President Obama knocked the former governor off his stride in the first minutes of the debate and Romney never regained his footing.
Moderated by a mellow, yet determined Candy Crowley, the town hall-style debate began with a question from a voter concerned about finding a job post-college graduation. Romney immediately touted his questionable record on education and job creation as governor of Massachusetts, where, as current governor Deval Patrick stated, he was “more interested in having the job, than doing the job.” The President took the opportunity to highlight his rescue of the auto industry, reminding voters that Romney wanted to allow Detroit to go bankrupt.
The back and forth of this exchange set the tone for the entire night. Romney, proving once again that he is oratorically ambidextrous, frequently attempted his usual flip-flop on the issues, but the President would not let him slide. He deftly exposed the superficial nature of Romney’s “5-point plan,” which is oddly reminiscent of the infeasibility of the “9-9-9 plan” of former GOP frontrunnerHerman Cain, which reminded voters that Romney has yet to explain how he is actually going to achieve his plans for the economy:
Governor Romney says he’s got a five-point plan? Governor Romney doesn’t have a five-point plan. 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. That’s been his philosophy in the private sector, that’s been his philosophy as governor, that’s been his philosophy as a presidential candidate.
You can make a lot of money and pay lower tax rates than somebody who makes a lot less. You can ship jobs overseas and get tax breaks for it. You can invest in a company, bankrupt it, lay off the workers, strip away their pensions, and you still make money.
That’s exactly the philosophy that we’ve seen in place for the last decade. That’s what’s been squeezing middle class families.
And we have fought back for four years to get out of that mess. The last thing we need to do is to go back to the very same policies that got us there.
Even more striking, as the debate shifted deeply into taxes and economic policy, the president wrested control of perhaps Romney’s biggest soundbite from the first debate, Big Bird, while simultaneously telling Romney that if he is such a good businessman, he wouldn’t even trust himself:
We haven’t heard from the governor any specifics beyond Big Bird and eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood in terms of how he pays for [balancing the budget].
Now, Governor Romney was a very successful investor. If somebody came to you, Governor, with a plan that said, here, I want to spend $7 or $8 trillion, and then we’re going to pay for it, but we can’t tell you until maybe after the election how we’re going to do it, you wouldn’t take such a sketchy deal and neither should you, the American people, because the math doesn’t add up.
“Sketchy” is the perfect word to describe Romney’s performance. When he said that he would not rely so much on China for economic recovery, President Obama said derisively:
“When he talks about getting tough on China, yeah, keep in mind that Governor Romney invested in companies that were pioneers of outsourcing to China. And he’s currently investing in companies that are building surveillance equipment for China to spy on its own folks. That’s — governor, you’re the last person who’s going to get tough on China.”
And the Obama train never lost steam.
When the question was asked how Romney was different than George W. Bush, the former governor itemized how a Romney presidency would differ from the Bush Administration. Obama took the reins of that question and insisted that yes, they are different, but Romney is worse:
There are some things where Governor Romney is different from George Bush,” Obama said. “You know, George Bush didn’t propose turning Medicare into a voucher. George Bush embraced comprehensive immigration reform. He didn’t call for self-deportation. George Bush never suggested that we eliminate funding for planned parenthood. So there are differences between Governor Romney and George Bush, but they’re not on economic policy. In some ways he’s gone to a more extreme place when it comes to social policy. I think that’s a mistake.
The president was clearly in his element. Romney attempted to fight back on accusations that he invests in Chinese companies and hordes money in the Cayman Islands by asking Obama combatively about his pension. To which the president joked, “I don’t look at my pension. It’s not as big as yours, so it doesn’t take as long,”
President Obama brilliantly framed women’s issues in the broader context of economic and family issues, calling out Romney for not supporting the Lily Ledbetter Act and equal pay for women. Romney, sidestepping that issue after tap dancing around his backpedal on women’s access to contraception, made the dubious claim that he should be trusted to care about women because when he was looking for skilled people to hire, he had his staff bring him “binders full of women” for high-profile positions in his cabinet.
Watch the full debate below and read the full story on NewsOne.
