President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, met for their second presidential debate Oct. 16 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. Both candidates were, on the whole, well prepared and capable of defending their respective positions on the issues during the town-hall style debate. Moderator Candy Crowley also did a laudable job in her role, keeping the candidates on topic and promoting intense discussion.
According to polling after the first debate, Romney was the clear victor. A CNN/ORC International poll declared that 67 percent of voters thought he won, while only 25 percent thought Obama did a better job. However, a poll by the same two organizations following the second debate gave Obama the victory by a margin of 46 percent to 39 percent. An internal Romney campaign memo, released by CNN before the first debate, showed that people within the campaign expected Obama to win, calling him a “uniquely gifted speaker.” This did not, however, prove to be true during the first debate, which focused solely on domestic policy.
The second debate had questions in both the foreign and domestic policy arenas, which were addressed to the candidates from undecided voters. Questions came about education, energy policy, taxes, equal pay for women, the consulate attack in Benghazi, and other topics. Both Obama and Romney had good answers as well as weak points, and each accused the other of lying at various points throughout the night. Fact checking has validated some of those accusations.
When Obama was asked about equal pay for women, who in the United States currently only make 72 percent as much money as their male counterparts, he responded by touting how he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill he signed as president. This legislation amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its directives on the statute of limitations for filing equal-pay discrimination lawsuits under that act. The president also reiterated his commitment to preventing discrimination and said that it is something he will continue to fight for in the next four years.
Next, Romney had the opportunity to respond to the question, and he described his time as governor of Massachusetts to make a point. According to his account, as governor, he was searching for qualified people to comprise his cabinet. When the names came to him, they were all men, so he said that he approached women’s groups to find qualified women for the positions, and in return, they provided him with “binders full of women” who were qualified. This remark became one of the most memorable of the debate, going viral across the Internet. However, the remark was not entirely true; women’s groups did indeed provide Romney with the names and resumes of women qualified for cabinet positions, but they approached him with the idea, rather than the other way around. In addition to this obfuscation, Obama pointed out that Romney and his campaign have repeatedly deflected the question of whether Romney would have signed the Ledbetter bill had he been president.
A question on which Romney did quite well and successfully made his point, however, was first directed to the president. The questioner wanted to know what to expect over the next four years, depending on who would be president. Obama responded by touting his accomplishments, such as health care reform, attacking the leadership of al-Qaida and creating some 5 million jobs. Romney’s rebuttal to this was effective. He mentioned that more people are on food stamps now than there were four years ago and that the president had not lowered the unemployment rate as far as he said he would and didn’t deal with immigration challenges. Romney said that the president was a great speaker and fantastic at describing his plans for the country, but Romney used solid, real examples to detract from the president’s accomplishments.
When asked about immigration, both candidates had good responses. However, Romney’s had little force to back them up while the president could stand upon achievements such as the DREAM Act, which provides pathways to permanent residency to the children of illegal immigrants. Both candidates had similar points, such as saying that they wished to stop illegal immigration while still making it possible for people to come to the U.S. legally. Romney said he wished to provide pathways to permanent residence for children of illegal aliens, but Obama effectively responded by reminding the crowd and viewers that Romney said during the Republican primaries he would veto the DREAM Act. Obama also attacked Romney for saying that the highly controversial Arizona immigration law was a good model for the nation. Romney also managed to take the discussion off the topic of immigration during that section of the debate and began speaking about pensions, specifically those of the president, which appeared to be a transparent attempt to remove focus from much of the public debate over Romney’s various overseas investments.
A contentious topic on the evening of the debate was the attack on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, which killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens. Obama was asked why security was not enhanced at the consulate before the attack due to State Department information that there was a possible threat. Obama dodged the specific question, but he did discuss his handling of the situation once it occurred. He also criticized Romney for making the issue into a political one and trying to score political points for it. Romney responded by criticizing the Obama administration’s overall policy in the Middle East. Shortly after, Obama talked about how he handled the situation the day after the attack, including how he called it an “act of terror” in a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House. Romney rebutted by saying that the president did not do so and in fact took two weeks to declare the attack one of terror. After some argument, Crowley intervened and said that Obama had in fact called the attack an act of terror the day after it happened, which at the time seemed a positive for Obama. This was true, though in the debate aftermath, based on transcripts and various comments, it is also true that the Obama administration did wait some time to remove the notion that the cause of the attack and the riot was an anti-Islamic video. In the end, both Obama and Romney were correct in some regards about their comments on this particular issue.
Overall, the second presidential debate had a very different feel from the first. Both Obama and Romney had strong and weak moments. Romney was, at times, sanctimonious and childish, arguing churlishly with the moderator about who should have the last word. However, he also made his points clear and was capable of defending his positions. Obama appeared far more likable in this debate and was less aloof, professorial and condescending than in the first, which showed in his seven-point victory. With both men having won a debate, one debate remaining, and less than three weeks until Election Day, it will be interesting to see what happens next.
Editor’s note: The author self-identifies as a supporter of President Obama who has donated to his re-election campaign. That said, this article is intended to be a commentary on the performance of both candidates in the second presidential debate, not a piece specifically supporting either candidate.
Loading ...
Illegal aliens are being given our jobs, when there is still suffering from 24 million Americans without work? They smuggle their unborn babies into the country, so that taxpayers are forced to cover their every monetary need? Neither the Democrats nor Republicans will pass the “Legal Workforce Act or the “Birthright Citizenship Bill” to stop either travesty. Join your local TEA PARTY of the rising 41 million Americans or Legal Residents and they will not only get these laws passed, but halt the illegal immigration once and for all. The TEA PARTY is being absorbed into the Republican Party, with the intent to alter the direction that both corrupt parties are taken us? The TEA PARTY “The Peoples Party” can no longer sit by and watch the Democrats spending our hard-earned dollars to support the illegal alien invasion; placing official obstacles to halt energy companies drilling for oil on the “Peoples Lands”
Closing down coal mines in Virginia, after the companies spending millions of dollars to produce clean coal, while this administration allows gasoline prices to leap upwards. Learn more about the healthy agenda of the TEA PARTY at TEA PARTY.ORG. The only Americans, residents and illegal aliens who are going to collect any bounty under President Obama returning are the “Freeloaders”. The wealth people have accumulated isn’t even going to make a dent on the 16 trillion dollar meltdown, with 4 trillion placed on the backs of all of us. One thing the rich accomplish is risking everything, but in addition creates jobs, hundreds of thousands or millions of good jobs.
In the eyes of a Liberal Progressives, an 81-year old grandma with a cardboard sign of the TEA PARTY is more lethal than a crazed terrorist zealot with a machete whose sole intent is to murder. The Obama administration will not even call these fanatics “Terrorists” or murderers, even after the Twin Towers massacre of 9/11? If the Global Communist Obama Czars were to grab America they would: Burn all American heritage books; Destroy the red, white and blue; Shred the U.S. Constitution; Defund and disband our military; Eliminate free speech; Takeaway our guns. I hope you get what I am saying here. The world is falling apart because America is falling apart. Islamic terrorists smell the weakness in Obama—and they will take advantage to strike.
The coming year the new president could face: Crash of the dollar; Wall Street failures; Unemployment hitting astronomical highs; Work force vilification; Nuclear War in the making with Iran. The 37 Liberal communist Czars in the Obama government are determined to rip the heart out of this sovereign nation. He is already distributing Food Stamps to foreign nationals and he has already promised to pass a Comprehensive Immigration package if he wins in November. If that wasn’t enough, with the Sanctuary City in California spending 160 million dollars every two months, according to the Department of Health Services, the Liberals want to grant drivers licenses to illegal immigrants and migrants. AMERICA’S LAST RESORT IS THE TEA PARTY, BEFORE WE GIVE UP OUR FREEDOMS FOREVER.
The Tea Party must be a positive force for America. Return decay into growth; Immorality into wholesome traditional values; Sick spiritually into Judeo/Christian values; take away our right to free choice; Political ineptness into conservative government and rid ourselves of “Political Correctness”. I have never condoned violence to change a political nightmare, but the American people are sick and tired of the Liberals destroying our freedoms. It is not beyond anybodies imagination that these political idiots at either state or municipal level, are going to be in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle? If you read the ultra Liberal-Communist-Marxist and extreme socialists Journalist and newsmen in the Huffington post, New York Post, the Los Angeles Times and other corrupted news media so you are being programmed for a new world order, that is part of Obama’s ideology. This President and his Czars were adamant in allowing the United Nations have a specialized world tax to fulfill their agenda, behind our backs.
I do not know what the American public thinks about Donald Trump and those people classified as “Birthers”. Something is very odd about President Obama’s background, that two plus two doesn’t add up to four? Anybody who believes in the “Rule of Law” and doesn’t want to squander his/her votes on superfluous issues should read about the investigation in Hawaii, Kenya and Indonesia and read about to many fishy irregularities. Personally, I am voting as an Independent, with the emphasis on voting into Congress as many TEA PARTY LEGISLATORS AS I CAN INTO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TO CHANGE IT AND GET RID OF ALL THE CORRUPTION IN BOTH PARTIES. Go to TEA PARTY.ORG and collect the true information about the lies mainly coming from the Obama administration. That’s all they have left after the dismal performance in 4 years, lying, as they try to promote a Socialist agenda for another 4 years.
President Obama has promised without contradiction that if he wins the White House back, he will pass a blanket AMNESTY, a mass amnesty, a definite and negative Comprehensive Immigration Reform that will crucify the American job seekers to the majority of the 20 million or more illegal aliens. This will be unimaginable to the millions of working mums, dads who will pay for the illiterate, the people who come here illegally that taxpayers are financially supporting. Every day our hospitals are filling up with the sick people from around the world, for the price of a airline ticket or using guides to bring them through our borders. They are smuggled themselves into this land and taking advantage of our lenient laws. The U.S. courts demand we must care for every need, without ever paying one single penny into the pool.
Unless the TEA PARTY in the very near future exerts influence on state and federal policies, America will continue to sink like the ill fated HMS Titanic in a financial disaster. Some state voters have got smarter in outing Senators and Congress man across the board, replacing them with moderate Conservatives of the TEA PARTY leadership. Our country has being crippled by additional spending by the Democrats, but what should concern us is influence of the courts, namely the U.S. federal courts. For decades now state taxpayers have been forced to pay the way for illegal alien children, because there is a badly interpreted law, which makes every child of a foreign person the right to citizenship, if they can smuggle mostly unborn babies into our country. Originally it was that slaves after the Civil War could be granted citizenship. Not that any pregnant female could enter the jurisdiction of the United States and claim citizenship for their child? The highest court has never visited this law previously and either of political parties seemingly has ever entertained to vote on an amendment, so that only the children of one valid U.S. citizen have a right to claim citizenship. This is the origin of the DREAM ACT OBAMA EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE LAW, which has been simmering in silence for many decades. The cause and effect of children/ unborn fetuses smuggled across the border or on an international flight.
Our government does nothing about the birthright tourists, who come here and having delivered their baby here leave the country. Under the present law the child is entitled to a U.S. passport for future use. At a later date the parent or parents return with the child in tow, who is now eligible for a free education, free health and other services? At an even later date the U.S citizen can sponsor the immediate family members and this is yet another immigration issue called CHAIN Migration. This simple method of legal entry draws approximately 8.000 more people to the United States. However other than the birthright tourists as it so called, around 400 thousand pregnant women manage to wangle their way through borders or a port of entry, carrying a human seed in their body undetectable and become a massive financial cost on states and the federal government. The children grow up in America and the parents avail themselves of a child’s welfare payments, which accumulates into billions of dollars a year. This of course is the Origin of Dream Act children, which the illegal parents are entirely to blame and should be held accountable.
Across the country the majority of states are subject to this law, costing taxpayers’ unknown numbers of dollars annually, within the estimate of 113 billion and constantly rising. The example is the county of Los Angeles as in Year-end closing 2011 figures from the Department of Public Social Services reported that over $646 million in welfare and food stamp benefits were issued to illegal alien parents for their native-born children, announced Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. The $646.2 million consisted of $258 million in CalWORKs (welfare) and $388 million in Food Stamps) — a $21 million increase over the previous year. “With the $550 million for public safety and nearly $500 million for healthcare, the total cost for illegal aliens to this one County taxpayer exceeds $1.6 billion dollars a year,” said Antonovich. “These costs do not include the hundreds of millions of dollars for education.” Even with these billions of dollars staring in the face of an America drained by the poverty stricken from other countries, the city council has given the go-ahead for driver’s licenses for people who criminally entered America and now collecting free health care, free education for their children and Section 8 cheap housing.
I