“Obama came back swinging,” was Wolf Blitzer’s outburst as the debate concluded. As a matter of fact, Obama was indeed there, he actually showed up, but exact the same Obama that has been president for the past four years.
Romney stood on course in making the argument about Obama and his record, and even pulled a Newt when confronting the moderator in getting a fair share of time to respond.
The first debate was a game changer, the second was a game maintainer. If Romney had to win the first debate to remain relevant as a candidate, Obama had to win big, in over coming his bad record and portray Romney as worse than him or at least get Romney to stumble and shift in defense mode. That didn’t happen. Obama came back in scoring political points, adding some fuel to his unenthusiastic campaign, but Romney won on style, looking presidential, and in the same time hitting the President over his record, and boy, was that a long list.
The post-debate CNN poll of debate viewers had it right on: While Obama edged out Romney in the 2nd debate with 46% to Romney’s 39%, on all the issues, voters expressed greater confidence in Romney’s ability to lead, just in time for Romney to obtain his role as an effective alternative to President Barack Obama.
