Obama vs. Romney Round Two: Counterpoint

After Governor Romney decisively beat President Obama in the first of three debates, Obama desperately needed a boost in momentum. Luckily, Vice President Biden came to the rescue and successfully attacked Congressman Ryan on foreign policy, the economy and Romney’s notorious 47% remark. Although Biden at times seemed overly aggressive and dismissive of Ryan’s ideas, he provided the boost Obama needed and set the stage for a fierce second debate between the two presidential candidates.

At Hofstra University, the candidates met once again for a second debate. Overall, Obama acted far more aggressively than before and called Romney out on his policies. Romney on the whole, attacked the president’s record of slow economic growth and job recovery. Romney claimed that the Reagan administration recovered jobs much faster than the Obama administration has done. However, he apparently ignored the fact that the current recession began with the financial markets, not with the Federal Reserve, and history has shown that it takes anywhere from eight to fourteen years to recover from a failure of the commercial banking system.

After months of not releasing any details of his tax plan, Romney revealed a five-point plan to get the economy back on track. However, this plan does little more than emphasize five goals. Romney’s plan entails energy independence, improving education, cutting the deficit and championing small business. Great, Mr. Romney, you’ve identified key issues now how are you going to solve them?

Obama attacked Romney’s tax plan by explaining his own plan for cutting the deficit. Obama would let the Bush Tax Cuts on families earning $250,00 or more expire but he would not raise taxes on anyone else. Under this plan, 98% of families would pay the same amount in taxes they have been for the last four years. Obama accurately pointed out that Romney’s proposed 20% across-the-board tax cut as well as his plan to increase defense spending by $2 trillion would add a total of $7 trillion to the deficit. In response, Romney claimed that he would close tax loopholes and end certain tax exemptions like mortgages. However, even with fewer exemptions and loopholes, the additional revenue fails to cover these massive additions to the deficit.

On foreign policy, Obama constantly had the upper hand. He used his record of ending the Iraq War and killing Osama Bin Laden as proof that he means what he says. Obama also promised to bring to justice the violent protestors who attacked the United States Embassy in Libya. After Secretary of State Hilary Clinton released a statement exonerating Obama from responsibility, Obama stated in the debate “I’m the president and I’m always responsible.” His remark directly counters Romney’s accusations that Obama shirked his duty to tell the American people exactly what happened.

While Obama took responsibility, Romney arrogantly refused to admit his own mistakes. A few weeks ago after the attacks in Libya the Romney campaign released this statement: “It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks”. In the debate, Romney continually attacked Obama for not recognizing the attacks as terrorist and refusing to brief the American populace until days after the incident. Romney seems obsessed with making Obama seem weak and uninformed as he stands by an incorrect attempt at using Libya to gain political ground. Romney’s most embarrassing moment in the debate came when the Moderator, Candy Crowley, fact checked his claim that Obama didn’t mention the word terror until days after. However, the transcript, of Obama’s next day response showed he said “terror” when describing the Libya attacks. Crowley’s fact check left Romney stuttering for the remainder of his speaking time on that question.

For the most part, Obama accomplished what he needed to in this debate. Many of Obama’s attacks on Romney’s positions kept Romney on the defensive. Neither candidate offered any new information on their economic plans and Romney continued his magnificent ability to dodge questions better than Vince Vaughan dodges balls. The economy discussion more or less ended in a tie. Obama’s victory in the second debate came from his unrelenting attacks on the truthfulness of Romney’s statements and his grasp of foreign policy. Furthermore, Romney continued to seem slightly out of touch with mainstream America when he talked about “binders full of women” and used a question on gun control to defend two parent households as superior. If Obama wants an upper hand in this election, he needs to continue the momentum from this debate and the vice-presidential debate into the final debate this week and on into November. •