I hadn’t given any thought to ‘woman binders’ since Barbra Streisand wore one in Yentl. But it looks like ‘woman binders” might be a day two story for reasons we didn’t realize.
Mitt’s giddy moment relived …
MR. ROMNEY: Yeah, I — I certainly do. I certainly do. I — I think it’s interesting the president just said something which is that on the day after the attack, he went in the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror. You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Please proceed.
MR. ROMNEY: Is that what you’re saying?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Please proceed, Governor.
MR. ROMNEY: I — I — I want to make sure we get that for the record, because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Get the transcript.
MS. CROWLEY: It — he did in fact, sir.
So let me — let me call it an act of terrorism — (inaudible) —
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy? (Laughter, applause.)
Please tell me I’m not the only one who caught this epic line …
Mitt Romney: “Our party has been focused on big business too long. I came through small business. I understand how hard it is to start a small business.”
Through the lengthy and squalid effort of the Republican party and its press allies to exploit the attack last month in Libya, the centerpiece has been the alleged magical powers of the words ‘terror’ and ‘terrorist’. It’s reminiscent of Rudy Giuliani’s endless yakking in 2008 that the biggest problem with his Democratic opponents was that they didn’t say “9/11” enough, as though one grapples most effectively with the threats to the country by the endless repetition of buzzwords. Read More
Our reporter on location at Hempstead sums up what he saw.
If you were hungry for President Obama to tell Mitt he was fibbing, he gave you your fill. Watch.
I don’t know what effect this debate will have on the polls. But I do know that the only iPhone app that sends you live notifications of every poll in any race you choose to follow is PollTracker. And you can download it for free right here in the Appstore.
45,000 people are already using it to stay up to date on the campaign.
Romney did well. Obama did better. And increasingly better over the course of the evening. I said earlier this evening that a candidate always has to be really careful getting into fights or going on the attack in a Townhall format. But I think Obama pulled it off. In fact, he managed to effectively balance an unwieldy mix of goals he brought into the debate. Be tough. Be presidential. Connect with the audience. Reengage supporters. Push an effective critique of Mitt Romney. Over the course of 90 minutes the cadence of tension and body language and power slowly arched in Obama’s favor. Read More