You’ll get your chance in a minute, I’m still speaking, Mr President
Gloves are off as race for the White House turns nasty
A FIERY Barack Obama squared up to Mitt Romney in a second TV debate in which their differences sometimes boiled over into real anger.
His presidency in peril, Mr Obama put in a strong performance, determined to avenge their first bruising encounter earlier this month.
Instant opinion polls indicated that it was the President who this time claimed victory in the ‘town hall meeting’ style question-and-answer session in Hempstead, New York, on Tuesday night.
Two polls gave victory to Mr Obama – one by 37 per cent to 30 per cent, the other by 46 per cent to 39 per cent.
During the 90-minute debate, watched by up to 60million viewers, the Republican chipped away at Mr Obama’s economic record and a string of unfulfilled pledges on unemployment, the deficit, health spending and immigration. In
÷MITT Romney has unwittingly become a viral hit on the internet over his awkward ‘binders of women’ remark during the debate. The Republican slipped up while trying to show his feminist credentials and describe his own efforts to hire more females to his cabinet. He said: ‘I went to women’s groups and said, “Could you help us find folks?” And they brought us whole binders full of women.’ A Twitter account, @Romneys binder, Binders of Women Facebook page and other web tributes to the moment sprung up within hours. On blogging site Tumblr, his picture was overlaid with the words: ‘He has an iPad full of women?’ turn, the President accused Mr Romney of backtracking on issues such as coal mining and outsourcing jobs to China.
In answer to questions from the audience, the pair traded further blows over issues including immigration, energy, Libya, unemployment and even the availability of assault rifles.
In an indication of the closeness of this year’s White House race, the pair fought over each second of speaking time – frequently interrupting each other in mid-flow. Both also thought nothing of arguing with the moderator, broadcaster Candy Crowley, over the debate rules. When Mr Obama stood up from his stool at one point to speak, Mr Romney sharply told him: ‘You’ll get your chance in a moment. I’m still speaking.’
There were also moments of genuine animosity. At one point, the President glared with undisguised fury at Mr Romney after the latter accused his administration of playing politics over the recent deaths of its Libyan ambassador and three staff in an attack on the US embassy in Benghazi. In a passionate rebuttal, Mr Obama said the implication was ‘offensive’.
When Mr Obama accused his millionaire opponent of investing heavily in China in the past, Mr Romney attempted to prove his opponent also benefits from investments in the country. He interrupted Mr Obama repeatedly to ask: ‘Mr Obama, have you looked at your pension?’ Raising laughter from the audience, the President finally replied: ‘I don’t look at my pension. It’s not as big as yours, so it doesn’t take as long.’
Unlike the first debate when he was accused of failing to challenge his rival over holes in his economic arguments, Mr Obama took Mr Romney to task over his plans.
He accused the Republican of being hazy and twisting the truth over a pledge to create 12million jobs, saying: ‘ We haven’t heard from the governor any specifics.
‘If somebody came with a plan that said, “I want to spend $7trillion or $8trillion, but can’t tell you until after the election how we’re going to do it,” you wouldn’t have taken such a sketchy deal. And neither should you, the American people. The math doesn’t add up.’
In turn, Mr Romney said Mr Obama’s economic record did not add up to a convincing argument for another four years in power. ‘ He’s great as a speaker, and describing his vision,’ he said. ‘That’s wonderful except we have a record to look at.’
That record included driving up debt from $10trillion to nearly $16trillion, which ‘puts us on the road to Greece’.
With little to choose between the two men, their wives also ended up battling to stand out against each other on Tuesday night. In an awkward moment, Michelle Obama and Ann Romney arrived to find they were in matching hot-pink outfits.
Some suggested they both chose the strong colour to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Whether the President’s debate victory translates into an advantage in national polls remains to be seen. But the general verdict was that he has battled back into the game.