The second debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama was set up as a “town hall” format, with the audience asking the questions and a more relaxed atmosphere with the candidates not glued to a podium or a chair. Though less formal, it made for a better performance all around. 

The main critiques of the first debate were Jim Lehrer’s inability to moderate and Obama’s seeming lack of interest in participating.  This time, the President was more enthusiastic, the moderator had slightly more control, and Romney was still fired up from his performance in the first round.  All of this led to an interesting night.

Moderator Candy Crowell of CNN did a better job controlling the candidates than PBS’s Jim Lehrer. However, she was still unable to keep the candidates’ speaking time equal. Just like the first debate, Obama ended with approximately four more minutes than Romney.  The discrepancy began early in the debate.  The first time Romney clashed with Crowell and argued that he deserved time for a response, he was done by over a minute.  The largest discrepancy during the debate was just more than five minutes.

Like his “Big Bird” comment from the Oct. 3 debate, Romney made another gaffe that went viral.  Romney said that while he was governor, he wanted to get more women in his cabinet, so he said he went through “binders full of women” to fill positions in his administration.  The comment did not go over well with liberals and a variety of memes, a novelty Twitter handle, and a few Tumblr accounts were created to exploit the mistake. This, along with his comment about employers needing to give women flexibility in their hours to be able to take care of their children angered and offended feminists and working single fathers. But Obama had a few slip-ups too; including his comment about “clean coal,” which confused environmentalists about his sustainable energy policy.

As is common for debates featuring incumbent presidential candidates, Obama’s track record was an intense part of the debate. Romney pointed out flaws from the President’s first term, stating that he had not kept his promises, and said that it will be “four more years of the same” if Obama is reelected. Obama defended himself noting various accomplishments during his first term, stating that he had done several of the things he had pledged during his 2008 campaign, and said that he would continue to keep the promises he has not yet fulfilled with another four years in office.

President Obama performed much better in this debate than the last and the polling showed that the public responded well to having the “old Obama” back.  CNN’s first polls after the debate showed that out of a survey of registered voters, 73 percent thought that Obama did better than expected. 

The group of undecided Ohio voters asked well-thought-out, specific questions, adding personal touches to each issue discussed. Crowell interjected to keep the candidates on-topic and to encourage them to expand on their answers with specifics at times and also ordered them to move on when time became an issue.

At one point, Romney criticized Obama’s handling of the incident in Benghazi,Libya in September. Crowley put her foot down to correct Romney’s statement that it took the Obama administration 14 days to declare the attack in Libya as an act of terrorism. As the two candidates and Crowell talked over each other about this correction, the audience clapped. Not long after this little disruption, the debate went back on its way smoothly.

Hot topics included education, job creation, tax deductions, sustainable energy, assault weapons, immigration, and equality for women in the workplace. Both candidates mentioned the importance of small businesses and middle class families, each citing how their economic plans would sustain both. They also discussed plans to keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and to make outsourcing abroad less appealing.

Overall, analysts were pretty split on who had won the debate but the general consensus was that Obama won with a slight margin.  The CNN poll mentioned earlier said that out of those surveyed, 46 percent believed that Obama won the debate while 39 percent believed that Romney won.  CBS polling showed an even smaller margin of victory with 37 percent saying that they believe President Obama won and 30 percent said that Romney won.  The remaining 33 percent called the debate a tie.

With a tied record, it will be vital for both candidates to succeed in the final debate Monday, Oct. 22.  The DePaulia will again be live-tweeting and doing live coverage on our website; providing real time fact-checks, answering audience questions, facilitating discussions, and providing polls.