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
I’m not sure it’s the most significant. But in some ways a stand out moment for me was the exchange on Libya when Romney clearly thought he’d caught Obama in a gotcha moment (saying he referred to attack as “terrorism” the day after it happened). But if you’ve been paying attention you know that’s exactly the word he used. Whatever else you can say happened — and must is total baloney from the Romney camp — that’s the word he used. But somehow Romney hadn’t been prepped or briefed on that. And even Crowley had to factcheck him in real time. Here’s the video.
10:24 PM: Why is it that you changed your mind?
10:25 PM: New hunting opportunities.
10:26 PM: Flashback: Crowley live fact checks Romney on President’s statement on Libya attack.
10:29 PM: Flashback: Obama says Romney more extreme than Bush on social issues.
10:35 PM: Huh, misperception. Interesting question.
10:36 PM: Mitt goes to the 47% (implicitly through the 100%).
10:37 PM: Mitt: We don’t have to settle. Good rhetorical angle. “President hasn’t; I will.”
10:38 PM: Fair shot. Playing by the rules.
10:40 PM: Decision to watch debate on Google feed suddenly seeming like a really flawed idea.
9:57 PM: A lot of misleading malarkey. But solid answer from Romney … Probably the best run of the night for Romney.
10:00 PM: Pathway to become a “permanent resident.” Key phrase from Romney. No path to citizenship.
10:05 PM: Self-deportation. No, Candy.
10:06 PM: Curious what the fact check will be on Mitt and the Arizona law.
10:07 PM: Remember, one of Romney’s immigration advisors is Kris Kobach, the guy who popularized ‘self-deportation’, and came up with the idea for the Arizona law.
10:08 PM: Obama hits Kobach.
10:11 PM: Obama takes Libya back to Romney. “You don’t turn national security into a political issue.”
10:12 PM: Obama’s answer put Romney off balance for delivering his main attack. Weak answer … Apology tour. Leading from Behind. Unraveling. Lots of jargon.
10:16 PM: Romney lost this round on Libya.
10:17 PM: Nope. Romney’s just wrong on this one. Surprised he wasn’t well prepped on this one. Pretty bad when Candy Crowley has to call you out as straight out wrong.
10:18 PM: The big anticipation from the right was that Romney was going to crush Obama on Libya. He totally flubbed it. Thought he had a gotcha on the President’s Rose Garden statement. But he didn’t.
10:21 PM: Flashback: Obama tells Americans not to fall for Mitt’s ‘sketchy deal’. Watch.