The second presidential debate was moderated by
Candy Crowley of CNN. In this presidential debate Obama was at his best. He was
determined never to let any accusation levelled against him by Romney to stick.
He tried successfully to defend his record as president and aimed to discredit
Romney’s ability to do a better job.
This debate was very interesting and both
candidates were sharper and combative intending to score political and debating
points in the eyes of the public. The only problem was that they gave Candy
Crowley a hard time. She had a hard time trying to be polite and firm at the
same time when they were clearly exceeding their time and speaking out of turn.
President Obama rubbished the five point plan of
Governor Romney. He forcefully asserts that Romney has no five point plan and
that he has only a one point plan, which is that those at the top play by a
different set of rules. He further states that that is what created the crisis
in the first place. This is no doubt a reference to the Bush Administration. In
other words a vote for Romney is vote for a deepening and worsening of the
financial crisis.
It was obvious that the President and his team
had been extremely busy after the first debate and they had successfully graduated
from an Intermediate Romney Studies to Advanced Romney Studies and passed their
advanced studies with flying colours. He attacks Romney for presenting
himself as a coal guy when in actual fact he stood in front of a coal plant and
said that it kills and he was instrumental in closing it down. This and
many attacks were to present Romney as inconsistent.
On the question as to whether there is a
difference between President Bush and Romney, Romney distances himself from
President Bush and tries to present himself and his proposed policies as quite
different from Bush. It was obvious that the President loved this question and
seized on this opportunity to prove why the former Governor is like
President George Bush and in fact on some issues he was in fact worse than
President Bush.
All in all it seemed that President Obama had one
goal in mind to defend his record and his ability to keep his promises
while on the other hand discrediting the former Governor as being inconsistent
and shifting positions. The President did very well and he was slightly
ahead of Romney in this debate.
