A more aggressive Barack Obama buried the memory of a poor first showing as he and Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney clashed in the second presidential debate in New York.

Mr Obama, perceived to have lost their first encounter, came out swinging on the economy, tax and foreign policy.

Snap polls after the debate suggested Mr Obama “won” the contest, although by a narrower margin than his opponent was perceived to have won the first.

But analysts say the race stays tight.

BBC North America editor Mark Mardell says Mr Obama has stopped the panic in his camp.

What Team Obama would have dreaded was anything that contributed to a narrative of decline and defeat for the Democrat as he bids for a second term, our correspondent adds.

A CBS poll of undecided voters who watched the debate gave it to Mr Obama, 37% to 30% with 33% calling the debate a tie.

Meanwhile, a CNN poll of registered voters who watched – not just undecideds – gave the debate to Mr Obama 46-39.

In the town hall-style forum at Hofstra University on Long Island, the candidates roamed the stage, circling, interrupting and at times heckling one another as they took questions from an audience of 80 undecided voters.

The moderator, CNN’s Candy Crowley, often had to intervene to keep order.

The 11 questions from the voters present ranged from gun control to Libya to immigration, but the main focus was on the economy.

The most dramatic clash came over foreign policy, and the attack last month on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which left the US ambassador and three other Americans dead.

Mr Romney sought to portray the attack as evidence of the Obama administration’s failing foreign policy and he suggested Mr Obama had dithered over admitting a terrorist attack had occurred.

Mr Obama shot back that he had said so the day after the attack, in an appearance at the White House.

The Republican challenged this, saying: “It took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.”

When Ms Crowley confirmed that Mr Obama had indeed called the attack an “act of terror” the day after the attack, the president told the moderator: “Say that a little louder, Candy.”

The president also accused Mr Romney of using the Libyan events for political purposes. “While we were still dealing with our diplomats being threatened, Governor Romney put out a press release, trying to make political points, and that’s not how a commander-in-chief operates,” he said.

Mr Obama accused Mr Romney of inconsistency, and contrasted his own bailout of the US car industry with the Republican’s position that car-makers should have been allowed to go bankrupt.

In turn, Mr Romney blamed the president for unemployment of 20 million and bloated federal deficits.

America, he insisted, could not afford another four years with Mr Obama at the helm, warning that Mr Obama’s policies would ultimately prove as disastrous as the euro debt crisis.

“We’ve gone from $10tn of national debt to $16tn of national debt,” he said.

“If the president were re-elected, we’d go to almost $20tn of national debt. This puts us on a road to Greece.”

Mr Obama said voters had heard no specifics on Mr Romney’s “sketchy” economic plan apart from eliminating Sesame Street’s Big Bird and cutting funding for Planned Parenthood, a family planning organisation Republicans say promotes abortion.

But Mr Romney insisted his budget would add up, and cited his experience in balancing budgets in business while running the 2002 Olympics and as governor of Massachusetts.

While answering a question about equality in the workplace, Mr Romney said that he had sought out female employees as governor of Massachusetts.

“I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women,” Mr Romney said.

The remark quickly went viral online, prompting a deluge of commentary on Twitter and other social media.

Our North America editor says that the body language of the debate was fascinating – a showdown between two highly successful men who are used to winning. At one point, they almost squared up to each other, uncomfortably close, invading each other’s personal space, hands raised in a gesture that says “stop – I’m talking”, he reports.

The pair meet for their final debate in Florida on 22 October, with the election following on 6 November.

 

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19976820

Fact-checking the second presidential debate

Fact-checkers have been testing the claims made on Tuesday after a fiery second debate between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.

The candidates clashed on tax, petrol prices and Libya, prompting the moderator to intervene to keep order.

When CNN’s Candy Crowley confirmed that Mr Obama had called an attack on a US consulate in Libya an “act of terror” the next day, the president said: “Say that a little louder, Candy.”

So, how truthful were the candidates?

Oil production

Both candidates have said their energy policies would create new jobs and reduce US dependence on foreign oil.

But while Mr Obama claims domestic oil production is up under his administration, Mr Romney said it had fallen, and has repeatedly attacked the president on the issue.

“I don’t think anyone really believes that you’re a person who’s going to be pushing for oil and gas and coal,” Mr Romney said on Tuesday.

It turns out both candidates are right, but are referring to two different time frames, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In the last year, oil production on public land was down 14% and natural gas was down by 9%, as Mr Romney suggested.

And, during Mr Obama’s first three years in office oil production was up 13% compared with the three years before that.

Illegal immigration

Fact-checkers have criticised Mr Obama over his characterisation of comments Mr Romney made about a 2010 law in Arizona designed to crack down on illegal immigration.

Mr Obama told the audience his opponent supported a part of the bill that said “law enforcement officers could stop folks because they suspected maybe they looked like they might be undocumented workers and check their papers”.

But according to Politifact.com, Mr Romney had endorsed a different law, passed in Arizona in 2007, which required employers to electronically check the immigration status of their employees.

The president also misrepresented his rival’s view when he said Mr Romney saw the 2010 measure as a “model for the nation”, Politifact added.

Middle-class taxes

Experts have disparaged Mr Romney’s claim that the middle class would see their tax burden rise by $4,000 (£2,475) as a result of Mr Obama’s fiscal policies.

According to Factcheck.org, Mr Romney was citing a study by the conservative American Enterprise Institute that was looking at the potential increase in taxes for different income groups if the US chose to service the national debt through tax hikes.

But Mr Obama has not said he plans to implement such a policy.

Factcheck adds that, by using the same logic, a budget plan put forward by Mr Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan would “increase taxes” on the middle class by $2,372 over the same period of time.

Attack on Benghazi consulate

The biggest stand-off of the debate came over the White House response to an attack on the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi.

Mr Romney criticised the president for taking many days to call the incident an act of terror.

Mr Obama hit back: “The day after the attack, governor, I stood in the Rose Garden [at the White House] and I told the American people in the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened.

“That this was an act of terror and I also said that we’re going to hunt down those who committed this crime.”

But his opponent countered: “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.”

According to transcripts of Mr Obama’s speech, he did say, “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation”, in a statement the day after the attack.

But correspondents say Mr Romney’s broader point is accurate – for many days after the assault White House officials linked events to outrage over a video mocking Islam.

By the Washington Post’s count, it took the administration eight days to describe the incident as a “terrorist attack”.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19980164