Debate Recap: Obama Returns To Life In Empire State Town Hall

Impassioned president benefits from live fact-checking of Romney attacks

Voters searching for an aggressive and passionate Barack Obama, the one many felt was absent during the first presidential debate with GOP nominee Mitt Romney, found him in Hempstead, N.Y., Tuesday night.

Not only was the president noticeably upbeat during Tuesday night's second presidential debate, smiling and smirking like Vice President Joe Biden in last week’s debate with Romney running mate Paul Ryan, Obama benefited from being on the right side of a Romney-botched foreign policy segment.

The final debate between the candidates, scheduled for this coming Monday, will focus on foreign policy.

Most scientific snap polls showed Obama as the winner of his second debate with Romney, a town hall style format in which audience members posed questions directly to the candidates. CBS News and CNN polls had Obama winning at 37 percent and 46 percent over Romney’s 30 percent and 39 percent, respectively.

Both men used the audience-posed questions to pivot to other topics and attacks, which moderator Candy Crowley of CNN generally discouraged throughout the debate. Many viewers, on Twitter and other social media, found Romney’s frequent interruptions of both Crowley and the president to be rude and disrespectful. Obama also interrupted and spoke over Crowley on at least two occasions.

[SEE LOOP 21’S FULL COVERAGE OF 2012 DEBATES]

CNN polling suggested debate watchers were more satisfied with Romney’s description of his economics plans. Obama used much of his time defending his and his administration’s first-term performance.

In any case, with either Obama coming out ahead on style or with Romney being more descriptive of his own plan, it’s clear Obama needed a good performance in the second debate to restore the first debate-associated losses in battleground state polling.

Extra: check out the (hilarious) Twitter hash tags from Tuesday night: #Debates, #bindersfullofwomen, #ReplaceWomanWithBinderSongTitles, and #GetTheTranscript.

Below, find the top five moments in video form:

1. Obama comes out ahead in fact-checked exchange on Libya.

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2. Romney asked to draw contrast between his policies and Bush II’s record.

3. Candy Crowley keeps Romney on topic in gun-control segment.

[ALSO READ: Urban Gun Violence A Staple In Black America]

4. Obama zings Romney’s poorly executed pension attack.

5. Obama saves “47 percent” Romney critique for final question.

[ALSO READ: Is Romney In Self-Destruct Mode?]

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