Presidential Debate Two

Flash poll results immediately following the debate reflected an Obama win. 

Flash Poll	Obama	Romney
CNN	46%	39%
CBS	37%	30%

I think that the President did what he had to do this time around.  He didn’t allow Romney to gallop the Gish (see link below).  He clarified the distinctions between the “severely conservative”   Romney   (Romney’s self-description) versus the 'first debate' Romney.  Recall that the real, "severely conservative" Romney pledged to "repeal Obamacare"; "shut down Planned Parenthood" and "nominate Supreme Court Justices who will repeal Roe v Wade" among other things to our detriment..

Obama countered Romney’s Gishes  in an assertive yet calm, presidential and commander-in-chief  manner.  He clarified campaign promises kept related to issues such as tax breaks for the middle class and small businesses,  equal rights for women in the work place, saving the auto industry, affordable health care for all, making college more affordable for more students, weakening Al Qaeda,  and the disposal of Bin Laden.

Similar to the first debate, I found Romney to be snippy and rude to the moderator as well as to the President  insisting that the debate rules be modified in his favor, but the President and moderator held their own.  Most of Romney’s  Gishes  were the same scripted talking points he galloped  during the first presidential debate.   If you want to see the facts versus fiction pointers on them you can go to the October 4th spin detective post for the first presidential debate entitled – “The first time someone show you who they are, believe them”.   

The Romney Gish I found to be most glaring was a new one! After Romney falsely claimed that the President "didn't" state that the Libyan embassy event was an “act of terror”  shortly after the attack,  he kept on restating the falsehood over and over even after he was corrected by the President and the moderator!

What was most striking about Romney’s  “act of terror” Gish was that it played to the zinger Romney threw in the first debate comparing the President to raising his "five sons"  when they  stated  “the same thing over and over “ hoping that it would eventually become true!  Romney’s false Libyan tactic punctuated that  zinger  in Obama’s favor!

Romney, also, repeated his first debate performance in not answering questions using scripted talking points instead, but the point that did him absolutely  no favors was his non-response to whether or not he would reverse his "severely conservative" pledge to not sign the "equal pay" bill for women.  Romney went in to a tailspin talking about how he had to search through "binders"(?!?!?) in order  to find "qualified" women for his Massachusetts gubernatorial team. Wow! 

The thing that came across as a pleasant surprise was that CNN  wasn’t as obviously slanted towards the Romney/Ryan ticket  as they were during the first presidential and vice presidential debates. The CNN commentators' coverage was more balanced offering pros and cons for both candidates. I, also, noticed a slight shift  in FOX News’ pre/post debate coverage although definitely not to the extent demonstrated by CNN - at least it was a start!

OCTOBER  19^th POSTSCRIPT

Someone from the Romney Camp must have slapped somebody’s wrist at FOX News because not more than a day and a half after the debate, FOXifiers were back to what they do best - Romneys’ “saying something over and over again with the hopes that it will somehow become true”.   Hours upon hours of aimless discussions blaming the moderator for their candidate’s less than stellar debate performance;  unfounded and pointless conspiracy theories on “plants” being placed in the undecided voter audience;  endless questions such as Does the phrase “act of terror” actually mean a terrorism act? – I kid you not!   Desperation does not smile kindly on Romney’s FOX!  

Sources:

CBS Poll Obama Wins Debate

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/10/16/cbs-poll-obama-wins-debate.html

Breaking CNN Poll

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/16/breaking-cnn-poll-obama-edges-romney-in-debate/

Gish Gallop Romney Style

http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2012/10/gish-gallop-romney-style.html

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