Thoughts on the Second Debate

This is a day late but here are my thoughts on the 2nd presidential debate:

Overall, I thought that from the perspective of an average voter, this debate was mostly a draw.  Polls showed the Obama won by anywhere from 8-10 percent, but Romney won by a landslide when it came to economic issues, which is a very good sign for him come November.

Obama came out much stronger this time, obviously listening to his advisors' advice about his major weakness in the first debate.  When the camera was on Mitt Romney, Obama looked eager, sitting at the edge of his chair, waiting to strike.

Romney was not quite as good this time around.  He had a few major misses, from missing the wide open touchdown on the Libya question (you know, the one where Candy Crowley was trying to drag the president across the goal line) to faulting the Bush Administration for not trying to help small businesses enough.  The third debate will focus exclusively on foreign policy, so hopefully Romney will be ready for a better answer regarding the president's absolute waffling over whether or not he labeled what happened in Benghazi a terrorist attack.  But I thought Romney still did fairly well considering that the "undecided" audience consisted mainly of disaffected Democrats (consider the questions and where the debate was held).

I still cringe a little when I hear Romney talking about how he will create exactly 12 million new jobs.  (Does the president directly create jobs?)  Even the "town hall" format, with the questioners asking how Obama and Romney will personally help them in their plights, is very off-putting in a country based on the idea of self-government.  Those kinds of promises tell a lot about the dominant hold that modern liberalism has had over our politics the last 60 years.

Onward to next Monday night.