Obama Wins Debate #2 (or at least ties, according to Fox)

After the first debate, some including me began to wonder if Obama really wanted another four years. But yesterday's performance seemed to put those concerns to rest (except on the one occasion when he said "when I was President," which was a troubling slip). Romney was again the attack dog, but Obama was clearly getting under his skin last night by giving back all that he received and Romney often showed his cantankerous nature -- a rather poor display for someone who would have to deal with contentious and delicate situations on an almost daily basis. On the facts, Obama won on almost every issue, as far as I'm concerned, though Romney performed well. The problem, as appears to always be the case with him in this election, is both his penchant for prevarication and his slippery flip-flopping.

Romney did get in a number of strong arguments, but his five-point plan seems destined to simply reiterate the work of Reagan and Bush in the past -- the very small government, low taxes approach that is at the heart of the mess we're currently in. He was forced to show his rather conservative positions on social policy and skated around a number of issues like immigration. While some of his lies went unchallenged, many were taken head on by Obama, and very effectively in many cases. The most obvious was regarding the tragic loss of the diplomats in Libya, which forced the moderator to actually fact-check Romney and call him out on a lie he repeated on at least four occasions. Romney also kept repeating that the deficit has "doubled" under Obama. But that is again untrue, unless we are rounding by $6 trillion dollars -- as the figures I have are a jump from $10 to $14 trillion. He also argued toward the end that regulation have "quadrupled" under the Obama administration, which seems absolutely absurd. And there was, of course, no acknowledgment that Bush got us into this problem to begin with or that Obama's stimulus package probably saved us from a depression (a point I think Obama should have made, given all the economists who have admitted this). 

In the end, one hopes this performance will restore Obama's lead and get the campaign back on track in the final weeks before the election. Working against my measured optimism was a conversation I overheard between two strangers behind me in line, who actually still believe that Obama is not a U.S. citizen and that Obama is "almost as rich as Romney." This is Romney's strategy, as far as I can tell -- essentially play to the ill-informed public's ignorance and hope they don't actually check the facts or the reality that his position changes from one hour to the next. And while sites like factcheck.org are doing a wonderful job of challenging political lying, I do worry that the service is used predominantly by people who already have access to the "truth." The third debate Monday should be an opportunity for Obama to score more points. Let's hope he does the job.