This debate was much closer than the first. President Obama was energized and very aggressive. Saying at one point that he was offended that Governor Romney would implicate that he used the Libyan consulate attack for political purposes. Romney was also very sharp answering well to the voter who asked ‘why should I vote for Obama again?’. Both candidates did well. People criticized the moderator in the first debate, Jim Lehrer, for not being in control of the debate. Candy Crowley last night’s moderator deserves a lot more heat. She cut Romney off when he tried to respond to an earlier attack, by talking about the president’s own investments in China. Yet Crowley let Obama rant about public education which was not brought up at all during the debate. 

Most appalling was when she decided to change roles from moderator to fact checker. She said that the president did call the Libya attack an act of terror the day after it happened. The crowd, which is supposed to adhere to the rules of not making any noise then broke out into applause for the president. We know that commentary, booing, and applause all influence viewer’s perceptions of the debate, and this moment made it look like Obama won that discussion. Candy later tried to walk back her comment. After the applause she quickly moved the two onto another question when Romney clearly had more to say on the topic. 

Also I think the format of last night’s debate was flawed. Both men several times were not clear about the debate format and when they could rebut and when they couldn’t. It worked out that there was an answer then the other candidate would answer and rebut then Crowley would move them along to another voter’s question. Candidates in most debates usually speak within a minute or two of each other for their total time for the night, in this debate somehow Obama was able to speak 4 minutes longer than Romney. 

Despite the deck stacked against him Romney had many good responses and stuck to his message of creating jobs. Both “The Weekly Standard” and CNN.com agreed that Obama edged Romney in the debate but that it would not have much of an effect at the polls. Their specific spin differs as always though.