This was a good night for Romney. Sure, he missed some opportunities, but his message was clear and strong, and even more importantly, Americans saw the same man tonight they saw in the first debate. You can’t say that for Obama. I thought the New Tough Faux Obama wouldn’t work out for him. Obama already has an issue with falsehoods, now we can add him personally to the equation. Bottom line–Obama needed to somehow either paint Romney as unqualified (that opportunity passed with the first debate) or present himself as some new person, ready to do something completely different for the next 4 years. He failed on both accounts.

We knew that as long as Obama didn’t fall off the stage he would be declared the winner by the media. But this was Romney’s night. Take it from the Luntz panel of Undecideds in Nevada. This says it all. Click the link for the video.

Luntz Focus Group Of Mostly Former Obama Voters Switch To Romney

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  1. Shifra says:

    I was worried that Team O might pull some October surprise on us, like an attack on Iran. Turns out the real October surprise was: Candy’s hair. Freaked me out.

    Someone needs to tell David Axelrod that being aggressive, interrupting your opponent and acting dismissively does not project strength, it projects jackassness. (I just made up that word in honor of the DB)

  2. kbartram says:

    After the debate, I got caught up on twitter. It looks like not many minds have been changed. The people that supported each candidate seem to still support their candidate.

    I was shocked, however, at some of the tweets. The ones attacking Obama were mostly civil, attacking his policies. On the flip side, the ones attacking Romney were attacking him personally.

    I keep seeing something about a book full of women. I guess I missed that part of the debate on my way home from work. What’s that book of women thing about?

    I was astonished to see Candy Crowley admit that Romney was correct about the Libya attacks. I guess even the media can’t cover ALL of Obama’s lies anymore.

    • Mr.Gates says:

      What’s that book of women thing about? Romney used a little verbal shorthand during the debate, to describe the binders full of qualified women’s resume’s he reviewed while filling his gubernatorial cabinet and staff positions. He said he received “binders full of women” from the the women’s groups he requested help from.

      Apparently, this is too great a rhetorical reach for the average Commtard to grasp. “Obviously”, Romney is so stupid he thinks women come from 3 ring binders… or something.

  3. plaisir says:

    Shifra, LOL, that was quite a surprise from Candy. I couldn’t decide if she was trying for the “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,” or the “Little Miss Marker,” Shirley Temple look.

    As for Obama’s debate performance, it was a tour de force of gasbaggery (I made that one up, DB inspired also). I saw another great one, “Mitt-slapped,” as in Obama was Mitt-slapped tonight, and will be at the next debate and then again on
    November 6.

  4. Dave says:

    Good new word Shifra!

    Debate:
    I know I’m going to hear things , see things and remember things that keep resonating after a debate. Because of my total distain for Obama, its usually something he says or does that pi$$es me off , and has me grumbling for the next 24 hours.
    BUT…… TONIGHT IT WAS CANDY CROWLEY.

    She was warned not to add her ideas of someone elses questions, and she defied the warning and even said she was going to.
    I have now watched this debate twice, and it is remarkable, as to which questions were directed for Obama to answer first, and which ones Romney got to answer first , I didn’t notice it the 1st time thru, as the chat was on fire, but its very interesting….. seemed like a lot of set ups for the DB. I do not like this Town Hall format at all.
    There were ” plants” every other question.

    But the thing that stands out the most to me was a comment at the end made by a fellow TAM, KrlyQ…. who when Crowley stepped ~into~ the attack in the Benghazi argument, trying to tell each candidate who was right & wrong with the facts…( by the way… SHE was wrong…. )…the crowd applauded her 2 or 3 times.
    KrlyQ said….” why would UN-DECIDEDS CLAP?” meaning to me that, yeah!!… you would only clap to support “your candidate” But, that makes no sense if you’re UNDECIDED. Like the Bush question lady? What a joke.
    So Thank You KrlyQ!!

    This debate was a set-up to save Obama’s ass from certain extinction.
    And Crowley pulled it off, with her JACKASSNESS.

  5. blogchick says:

    The DB: Words and more words…but few making any coherent point. Few thoughts that even made logical sense. And this is our genius orator- in- chief? It seemed at times I was watching another episode of ‘bad lip reading’, when DB was blathering on and on.

    Yes, Romney could have handled some questions better, but he did refuse to be pushed around. He stood his ground and took the opportunity to correct the facts, even when it was ‘two against one’ at times.

    IMHO, the president was smug, small, and– on occasion– rude. I noticed that he would often step forward and turn his back on Mr Romney, so that he could launch into more lies and obfuscation without having to look at Mr Romney.

    The faux-Biden interrupting thing was just awful. My feeling is that many others felt the same. At least I hope so…

    Looking forward to the next debate. How you start and then how you close is what people remember. #3 could be the clincher for President Romney!

  6. tamcat says:

    It looked like it to me, Romney was in command again. Also correcting Obama’s misstatements of facts.

    Did anyone notice Moochelle’s face in the crowd during the debate? She was ghastly sullen. I watched on CSPAN & only saw Moochell in view twice.

    Both Moochelle & Ann wore pink. What is up with that? I wonder.

    I was shocked and elated when the question was asked about terror attacks on our embassy. Obama couldn’t get out of it.

  7. Ginger says:

    My first thought was, “Gosh, Candy Crowley is all ready for Halloween! Please, the HAIR!! I guess she will be trick or treating as a “babe.”..Sorry, but this was what my evil little mind thought!

    Romney was great. Obama had been preparing for this one of course, but still, I didn’t think he was very convincing. Also,
    I know I am being really catty tonight, but did anybody else think Obama looked gaunt and ill? His eyes were so hollow and he just had a skeleton look about him.

    That Libya thing about the rose garden and Obama implying he called it “terror” and Candy helping him out is going to bite them in the butts. He only generazlied “terror”, he did not specifically call the Libya event an act of terror, and in fact, danced around with the video tape as the reason for protests and loss of American lives, for, what?.. 2 weeks? or more?

    Dems are probably happy tonight because their guy wasn’t a total disaster, but he didn’t win. They will say he did however, and we were expecting that.

  8. Chuck says:

    Please, no more townhall debates — if the moderator is going to interrupt and insert themselves into the debate, why have it?

    • Timbo says:

      Aw come on Chuck you know why…So the Libs can load the audience with plants to ask pre-scripted questions. It allows them to better control the narrative because for whatever reason we conservatives don’t do the same thing…and they count on that. Mostly I think its because we Conservatives are honest and believe in fair competition. The Libs don’t, they only want to dominate and shut us up. It’s all for TV and soundbites.

  9. larrygeary says:

    I tweeted an article by Yuval Levin on NRO where he pointed out that these “undecided” voters, being from Long Island, NY, will be different from your typical undecided voter. They’re basically disappointed Obama voters, and look at things from a decidedly leftist slant. Thus the stupid question, “How are you (Romney) different from George Bush (who isn’t running)?”; the question about gun control (most people are buying guns to protect themselves from Obama); immigration (likely from an illegal alien); women’s pay (using a false statistic that is a standard leftist talking point); etc.

    Obama lied. He couldn’t look Romney in the eye. He’s a creep. People noticed.

    Romney missed some opportunities. He fumbled the Libya question. He shouldn’t be excluding top earners from tax cuts. With 23 million people out of work, it makes no sense to encourage high skilled foreigners to immigrate here to compete with unemployed Americans. And I have a strong suspicion he’ll push “comprehensive immigration reform” and his own DREAM Act, which are wrong on so many levels. But overall he did well.

    Romney came off better than Obama. The Luntz focus group showed that. (Luntz was Ross Perot’s pollster, BTW.) Except for that woman who was afraid a Republican would knock her unconscious with a club and drag her by the hair into his cave, the group was impressed with Romney and unimpressed with Obama. I think we’ll see the true undecided voters breaking for Romney now.

  10. c2guy says:

    Agree, I hated the townhall method.

  11. Alain41 says:

    My thought with the hair and black clothing was that in honor of Halloween, Candy was going for the Margaret Hamilton look. Success!

    Speaking of remakes, Wikipedia has this info: Mila Kunis plays the Wicked Witch of the West who is named Theodora in the upcoming 2013 film Oz: The Great and Powerful.

    My dislike of town hall debates is that some of the questions really are just setup questions. In part, because people who are one topic concerned people can slide in under the cover of the other questioners. If you have one or 2 or 3 moderators asking questions, you can see not only that they are going from one topic to the next, but most importantly, over the multiple questions you can determine if the moderator has a bias. With town hallers only asking one question, you can’t get a pattern.

  12. BillBowen says:

    Obama tried his best to channel his “Inner Biden”, and it didn’t work. I tried to count all the falsehoods (I’m being polite) that Obama told and lost count. Some where absolute whoppers!!

    Ms. Crowley tried her best to save Obama from himself and was somewhat successful, but it was so obvious that this was her mode of operation that it might well be a negative overall.

    I’ll agree with my fellow posters that the “townhall” format just totally sucks wind, and that is even more so when the “moderator” is obviously in the tank for one side and is not neutral. I’m still trying to figure out why the Republican members of the Debate Commission so totally went into the tank with the moderator selections. From first to last they become more leftist.

    That last debate should be VERY interesting.

  13. Pat_S says:

    Too much analysis is about performance, likeability and demeanor. More needs to be said about contrasting the different philosophies. Obama sees the American people as needy and dependent on government. The Obama camp thinks they win with this pitch. Romney sees the American people as capable and thwarted by government. He should be running away with the election but instead he has to take likeability lessons because that is the media narrative.

  14. Foreverautumn says:

    I just LOVED how Obama tried to take credit for getting the evil oil companies to stop sitting on their oil leases and drill – something that Palin did.

  15. n9zf says:

    What was clear to me was that even with the huge bias by Crowley, Mitt Romney was confident and able to get his points across. I was especially thrilled to watch Mitt pounce on the Obama gaff regarding ‘terror’ and the Benghazi debacle.

    Before the debate, I heard the Cello playing and afterteh debate, there was this fat diva doing her scales…

  16. midget says:

    That was Crowley.

  17. lecederst says:

    Fair townhall debate? Sure!

    The million dollar question for a country of individuals who seem to have lost sight of what is truly important is based upon (my humble opinion only) what the motivating factor(s) of the individual voter is (are)?
    Country, God, “free stuff”, abortion, total control exacted by a government of “men” ,
    truth-telling (not one of the President’s strong character traits), individual liberty? Are the voter’s proud of a president who is a quintessential demagogue- on and about everything?
    Or are voters supportive of more union-thuggery and money controlling the outcomes of elections (Is that what the president means by the “one percent”)?
    What was promised to dues-paying union members yesterday cannot always be honored in Obama’s America – thanks to the president’s reckless spending and investment of the “people’s” tax dollars in fallacious, go nowhere companies, most of which have now failed! The president promises to do more of the same. Call me crazy but implementing more of the same policies that have failed miserably seems like abject folly to me! Unless the agenda is to dismantle the USA and the constitution.
    One outcome of the president’s policies has been the “watering down” of benefits to retired union members! Seniors! Seniors who worked hard, invested, and planned their retirements based upon what their union contracts stipulated- that is a tragedy and an abdication of our responsibility to care for the elderly.
    Are the voters motivated by entitlements, a job, religious freedom, the constitution …. ?
    The opportunity for anyone, no matter what their socioeconomic status, skin color, gender, etc … to try to make a life for themselves – and by extension, those they care about as well. I may be mistaken, but I don’t believe anyone became wealthy by choosing welfare/food stamps over gainful employment.
    In the America I live in, anyone, everyone still has a “chance”!
    Sadly, the current president has, unilaterally and mostly by executive fiat, engaged in usurping individual freedoms. Do Americans not care, do they not see what is happening?
    Is all of America willing to be complacent as the freedoms we have as Americans are systematically dismantled?
    This is an incredibly important election.
    Please exercise your constitutional right to vote and encourage others to do the same.
    May God’s will be done.

    Ruetday

  18. lecederst says:

    Fair townhall debate? MSM unbiased?- ever?

    The million dollar question for a country of individuals who seem to have lost sight of what is truly important is based upon (my humble opinion only) what the motivating factor(s) of the individual voter is (are)?
    Country, God, “free stuff”, abortion, total control exacted by a government of “men” ,
    truth-telling (not one of the President’s strong character traits), individual liberty? Are the voter’s proud of a president who is a quintessential demagogue- on and about everything?
    Or are voters supportive of more union-thuggery and money controlling the outcomes of elections (Is that what the president means by the “one percent”)?
    What was promised to dues-paying union members yesterday cannot always be honored in Obama’s America – thanks to the president’s reckless spending and investment of the “people’s” tax dollars in fallacious, go nowhere companies, most of which have now failed! The president promises to do more of the same. Call me crazy but implementing more of the same policies that have failed miserably seems like abject folly to me! Unless the agenda is to dismantle the USA and the constitution.
    One outcome of the president’s policies has been the “watering down” of benefits to retired union members! Seniors! Seniors who worked hard, invested, and planned their retirements based upon what their union contracts stipulated- that is a tragedy and an abdication of our responsibility to care for the elderly.
    Are the voters motivated by entitlements, a job, religious freedom, the constitution …. ?
    The opportunity for anyone, no matter what their socioeconomic status, skin color, gender, etc … to try to make a life for themselves – and by extension, those they care about as well. I may be mistaken, but I don’t believe anyone became wealthy by choosing welfare/food stamps over gainful employment.
    In the America I live in, anyone, everyone still has a “chance”!
    Sadly, the current president has, unilaterally and mostly by executive fiat, engaged in usurping individual freedoms. Do Americans not care, do they not see what is happening?
    Is all of America willing to be complacent as the freedoms we have as Americans are systematically dismantled?
    This is an incredibly important election.
    Please exercise your constitutional right to vote and encourage others to do the same.
    May God’s will be done.

    Ruetday

  19. wilde1 says:

    The media claimed Biden beat Ryan and the result was women and independents leaning towards Romney. Media was shocked to see a polling surge on a weekend for the Romney team. This debate got through to voters concerned about economy in the first hour. Obama emphasized how the economy is o.k. and will continue with same policies. The Bengazi clip was at end of debate, and it will only prepare Romney to make a concise indictment with timeline of Bengazi response by O at next Foreign Policy only debate. On a side note, I can not get over Candy Crowley being a vegetarian. She is not good advertisement for animal causes.

  20. FrankRemley says:

    The best thing about this debate was that it might mark the end of the town hall format once and for all due to Candy Karloff’s horrid performance as moderator. On the whole I thought it was pretty run of the mill for the most part. All Romney had to do going in was hold serve and this he did. He looked presidential and made no major blunders or errors. Urkel performed better than he did in the first debate but it still wasn’t enough for a clear cut victory which was what he needed. Most pundits seem to be scoring this debate as either a draw or giving an ever so slight edge to one of the candidates be it Romney or Urkel. That’s about how I see things. A slight edge to Romney and get ready for debate number three on foreign policy.

  21. radargeek says:

    On the Bengazi crisis:
    “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
    O’dumpy uses this Bengazi crisis to blame and weaken our Freedom of Speech by blaming a Utube video. Yes, I know that o’db didn’t want to show that al qaeda was not defeated because the spin he has given the American people is that al qaeda was eliminated. But, again it proves this jerk will go to any means necessary to get elected even have our Ambassadors dragged through the streets.
    Fast and Furious was intended on weakening out Right to Bear Arms by blaming all these assault weapons “bought” in the US and used by drug cartels (but that also blew up in this administrations face). Clearly, O’dumbass and the liberal asshats are using sinister methods to degrade our country and our Constitution!

  22. Cernunnos81 says:

    Ok, this song is for O’Bummer! I hope the usual Open Thread rules apply.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm7m59l-3sE

    Let the hilarity ensue!

  23. Dave says:

    One thing… Obama….NOR MITT… SAID THE WORD ” CONSTITUTION”…..ONCE!. (Not that Obama knows what it is).
    But I think Romney scored in the 1st debate, going to ” We the People”. &…” Endowed by Our Creator”….but a big whiff.
    You wanna win Mitt..,speak to Conservatives too.

  24. strider says:

    No curiosity about the 16 trillion and rising debt and the interest rate being held at to close to zero for nearly a decade to keep it from going into hyper drive?

  25. Alain41 says:

    Lefty analysis from New York Magazine‘s Jonathan Chait: “…President Obama is not a great debater, but in the second presidential debate, he gave his best performance. Mitt Romney came off well, but not nearly as well as he had during the first debate. Obama enjoyed friendly questions from an audience that obviously leaned left….”

    So even liberals concede that ‘undecided’ town hall questioners lean left.

  26. Dave says:

    Maybe they should change the term to ” Decision Challenged”….instead of “undecided”.

  27. LJZumpano says:

    OK it was a coincidence that Candy had the transcript in front of her. It was a coincidence that BHO tossed back to Candy for a confirmation. It was a coincidence that Michelle chose that moment to clap. Michelle had no idea that the Rose Garden statement would be brought up. Luckily, Mitt was smart enough to smell a possible trap and didn’t try to pursuit the issue without having a copy of the transcript in front of him, or was it just a coincidence that he stopped short when we all know how the coverup has played out?

    • sandyl says:

      LJZ great point. O’Reilly got an email asking how Candy just happened to have the transcript. Of course OR responded by saying she was preparing for the debate and knew Libya would come up, so of course she had that transcript as well as others.

      You could buy that answer except for one problem OR, how did DB KNOW SHE HAD THE TRANSCRIPT? I believe he actually said “read the transcript Candy.”

      As far as the TH debates, we are probably stuck with them, because what politician wants to say they don’t want to take questions from the “folks?” If they weren’t all plants it wouldn’t be a bad process, but since it is always a stacked deck, not much to do about it.

      I also want to say that yes Romney missed some things, but we are sitting at home. We are not in the middle of a debate that is 2 against 1 with half the audience that are lib plants. Under those circumstances he was Excellent!!

  28. strider says:

    To bad Candy blew off her new do by acting so stupid.

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