NEW YORK (AP) -
Maybe it's a cliché to say
the gloves came off in Tuesday's presidential debate. But then again,
maybe not, since the candidates sometimes looked like they were actually
about to start boxing.
It was a tense and testy
exchange at New York's Hofstra University, featuring a newly energized
and forceful President Barack Obama squaring off against a vigorous,
stand-your-ground Mitt Romney. But the evening will also be remembered
for giving the distinct impression that these candidates were liking
each other less and less.
-"I thought they were going to come to blows at one point," said Jonathan Paul, director of debate at Georgetown University.
-"It looked like they were circling a boxing ring," said Lillian Glass, a body language coach in Los Angeles.
-"I started thinking, here comes the Secret Service," quipped Jerry Shuster of the University of Pittsburgh.
One thing was clear: It was
a distinctly different Obama than the one who gave a largely listless
performance in the first debate. And there were differences, too,
between Tuesday night's Romney and the more obviously confident one from
the Denver debate.
Some impressions and assessments from analysts of political communication:
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THE PRESIDENT LEARNED HIS LESSON
First, the obvious: This
time around, Obama was unquestionably more forceful, aggressive and
effective than before - all words that were used to describe challenger
Romney in the first debate.
Want more adjectives? "He
was more direct, detailed, engaged and focused," said Kathleen Hall
Jamieson, a professor of political communication at the University of
Pennsylvania. "Stylistically, there are cues that suggest leadership.
Obama had them."
For Glass, the body
language coach in Los Angeles, it was a simple result of Obama having
learned his lesson. "He really learned well from his mistakes," she
said.
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A FREEING FORMAT
Another reason for the
president's vastly improved performance was the format, some said. Obama
appeared more comfortable with the town hall model - one that allowed
him to engage with his questioners in the audience and roam around the
stage, something he's good at. The lack of a desk or podium freed him,
said Shuster: "He was very smooth in his ability to move around the
floor."
As for Romney, though he
gave as good as he got for much of the debate, "He seemed overanxious,
ready to jump off his chair," Shuster said. "He seemed overanxious to
make an argument."
___
HOW AGGRESSIVE IS TOO AGGRESSIVE?
There's a fine line between aggressive and rude, and it was approached at times.
"You'll get your chance in a
moment. I'm still speaking," Romney said crisply when Obama was in
mid-sentence at one point, evoking some gasps in the audience.
"This was on the line - it
was the president of the United States," said veteran Hollywood
publicist Michael Levine. "I mean, WHOA. It was very forceful, on the
other hand." Levine felt the debate was a draw, between "two men, both
very bright, very articulate, very earnest."
___
THE LIBYA MOMENT
Romney seemed to be waiting
for the Libya question. And he was ready to pounce when an audience
member asked about the terror attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to
Libya in Benghazi.
Romney said it took Obama a
long time to admit the episode had been a terrorist attack, but Obama
said he had said so the day after in an appearance in the Rose Garden.
Moderator Candy Crowley of CNN agreed, saying the president had in fact
done so. Obama replied, "Say that a little louder, Candy."
Romney had a point in that
while Obama did refer to terrorism the day after, some in his
administration repeatedly linked it to protests over an anti-Islamic
video and took almost a month to acknowledge those protests never
occurred. And the administration hasn't explained why it took so long
for that correction to be made or how it came to believe that the attack
evolved from an angry demonstration.
Still, the exchange about
it appeared to hurt Romney going forward. "He seemed rattled after
that," said Paul, the Georgetown coach.
Jamieson agreed. "Romney had trouble getting his footing back for a while."
Even worse for him, though, Jamieson said, will be the inevitable fallout from the exchange being played again and again on TV.
"There's the debate, and
then there's the battle of control for the news agenda afterwards," she
said. "This is the sound bite likely to be played, and every time it is,
it will disadvantage Romney."
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THE POLITICS OF FASHION
Some would say the
candidates switched roles in terms of their debate performance; what's
objectively true is that they switched tie colors, with Obama wearing
red this time and Romney wearing blue. Is red warmer? Is blue cooler?
Michelle Obama and Ann Romney, meanwhile, ignored both of those colors
and turned heads by wearing the same shade of hot pink (likely a nod to
October being breast cancer awareness month).
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THE COMEDY QUOTIENT (OR IS 'BINDER' THE NEW BIG BIRD?)
There were a few amusing
exchanges in the earlier debates, but the extremely tense nature of this
one seemed to preclude that possibility. There wasn't really a "Big
Bird" or a "malarkey" moment, and even Joe Biden would have found little
to chuckle about.
But Big Bird may have ceded way in our pop-culture consciousness to a brand new expression: "Binders full of women."
It came when Romney was
answering a question about fair pay for women. While Obama mentioned the
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which he signed into law, Romney spoke of
his efforts to hire women into his cabinet when he was Massachusetts
governor. He said he asked women's groups to help and, he said, "They
brought us whole binders full of women."
Within moments, of course,
social media pounced with multiple Twitter hashtags and a meme that
featured a widely circulated image of women in a loose-leaf binder.
As for Obama, his best comedy moment may have come, fittingly for the night, in the form of a dig.
Romney asked him if he had
looked at his pension lately. Obama parried: "I don't look at my
pension. It's not as big as yours, so it doesn't take as long."
The crowd broke the rules
and laughed. Score one for the president. And look for a rematch on
pensions, binders and maybe even a return of Big Bird when the two meet
again next Monday. If the feisty, aggressive versions of both candidates
turn up again, it'll be fun to watch.
