The 13 days since the first debate seemed like an eternity for Obama people. Their man got roughed up and barely fought back. The polls showed slippage for Obama, and Romney had a bounce in his step.
Joe gave the faithful a couple of days of relief, but that was not enough. They needed to hear from the Boss.
In the second debate, President Obama clearly came to play. He demonstrated that he's willing to fight for a second term, and that he's in it to win it.
In a series of charged exchanges in a town hall format, the President had no problem confronting Romney and seemed to relish the combat. Mitt, for his part, wore down as the debate hit the one hour mark, and seemed to be running on fumes towards the end.
The most memorable moment involved the killing of four US citizens in Benghazi, Tripoli, September 11, 2012. Governor Romney succeeded in executing a rare double-boomerag gotcha.
First, Mitt tried to use the tragedy in Benghazi to paint a picture of disengaged leadership. The President responded by complementing Secretary Hilary Clinton (always a good idea) and taking full responsibility for the government's actions. He then proceeded to dress down Mitt, to his face, for his cheap efforts to politicize the events before the facts were in.
Second, Mitt, apparently unaware of the fact that the President had described the Benghazi events as, "acts of terror" the day after the occurrence, appeared to question whether these words had in fact been used. Moderator Candy Crowley advised Mitt that they had, and the President referred him to the transcript of his September 12 statement. One can assume that some of Mitt's foreign policy advisors will be asked to sit in the corner.
They meet again in Boca Raton, Florida (site of Mitt's 47% fundraiser comments) on Monday, October 22 to debate foreign policy.
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