Notes from the Old Noank Jail

President Obama scores in second debate

Tonight was a clear victory for President Obama in the second debate.

Mr.Romney remained consistent in his aggressive style from the first debate but it didn’t work as well for him this time around. In addition, he got caught flat-footed on a foreign policy issue.

Admittedly, I am in the minority that felt Mr. Obama did perform properly, if somewhat reserved, in the first Presidential debate. He was calm, responded properly and tried to follow the rules established by the moderator. But Mr. Romney, by contrast, was very aggressive, frequently interrupting both the moderator and Mr. Obama. And although some of Mr. Romney’s statements in that first debate were factually untrue, most of the public comments I have read declared him the victor and most people seemed to prefer his bullying style.

As I said at the time, I still prefer order over chaos.

The tone and format of tonight’s debate was much different, perhaps mostly because of Mr. Obama’s more forceful presentation and more specific attacks on many of Mr. Romney’s previously stated positions…positions which Mr. Romney appeared to be changing almost on the spot. On the whole, I felt Mr. Obama had the edge, until Mr. Romney started to attack him on foreign policy and then blame him for the ambassador’s murder. But then suddenly, Mr. Romney got caught with one of his own lies concerning the “terrorist” issue. More embarrassing that that, he even had to be corrected by the moderator herself.

At that point, Mr. Obama became the clear winner…even the crowd itself responded… after which he delivered the final summary blow. This time around, Mr. Obama finally mentioned the Romney “47%” remarks previously caught on tape, thus exposing what many people believe are Mr. Romney’s true feelings twoard many American citizens.

Again, although I am a registered Republican, I have been continually embarrassed by the Tea Party Extremists and their “Fox News” attitude towards Mr. Obama. And, in my opinion, the “elephant in the room” is still the fact that the majority of Republicans in Congress, with their obstructionist attitude, have resisted almost everything Mr. Obama has tried to accomplish in the past 4 years.

As I said previously, I still hope that President Obama will remain in office for four more years and is able to accomplish most of his goals. In the meantime, this could serve as a lesson to the Republican party extremists that the wealthy 1 % do NOT represent all the American citizens. Let the party return to the centrist politics that I’m sure most of us prefer and would like to see again.