A much feistier President Obama appeared at the second debate with Mitt Romney. He stoutly defended his record and lunged zestfully at his opponent.
Romney maintained the tempo he set in the first debate, sticking to a script and attacking Obama’s economic record. The difference was that the president was not nearly so passive in response.
Obama referred repeatedly to the mess he inherited from President Bush. “The commitments I’ve made, I’ve kept,” he said. “And the commitments I haven’t kept, it’s not for lack of trying.”
Romney came back with a barrage on the parlous state of the economy. Under Obama, employment had stagnated and the government deficit increased, he said.
There were moments of levity. After Obama claimed the wealthy Romney had benefited from investments in Chinese firms, Romney walked towards him and asked if he had looked at his own pension recently. Obama waved him off, saying: “I don’t look at my pension. It’s not as big as yours.” The most dramatic moment came during a discussion of the recent killing of the American ambassador to Libya. Obama reacted angrily to Romney’s suggestion that his administration had lied about its security failings in Libya.
Looking straight at Romney, he said: “The suggestion that anybody on my team, the secretary of state, our UN ambassador, anybody on my team, would play politics or mislead, when we’ve lost four of our own, is offensive, Governor.”
With the polls still tight and hard to read, by edging last night’s debate, Obama turned the final debate on Monday into the decider.
