Obama Won the Debate, Hands Down. So Did Crowley.

We try to always admit when we're wrong, and we have to admit we were definitely wrong in our doubts about Candy Crowley as the moderator of the second Presidential debate last night. Ms. Crowley did exactly what she said she would - she got involved and truly moderated a debate that became more of a real debate than we've ever seen in a Presidential context. Crowley was firm with both men, she rarely backed down, and she gave serious fact checks when needed.

As far as the two men at center of last night's events, the debate was never going to be anything more than a Rorschach inkblot for much of the country, who are already firmly and deeply decided on who they support and therefore were going to see in it whatever they already expected to see.

That said, it was the undecided voters that the two men were addressing - both the 80 undecided voters in the room, and the thousands of undecided voters across the country, upon whom this presidential race hinges. The immediate post-debate consensus seems to be that President Obama beat the tar out of Mr. Romney, and we heartily concur. To say that at times Romney looked shocked, almost punch drunk, wouldn't be going too far.

Mr. Romney interrupted and attempted to bully both President Obama and Ms. Crowley at nearly every turn, often in a rude, arrogant, and discernibly angry way. Romney's arrogance made it clear that he is not accustomed to everyone around him not deferring to him at all times, on his every idea - what a friend of our staff calls 'strong and wrong.'

That incredible level of arrogance could not have been featured any more starkly than when Mr. Romney got fact checked, in real time, during the discussion on the President's Rose Garden remarks the day after the attack in Libya.

Romney seemed to refuse to acknowledge that the President in fact did call the Libyan attack "an act of terror" even after the President corrected him. When Ms. Crowley stepped in and backed up the President with the quote from the Rose Garden, Romney was visibly stunned. And then continued his insistence that it was untrue.

The large number of topics covered in the debate was surprising, given the vigorous back and forth between the two candidates. From good-paying jobs and outsourcing, to energy and taxes, to trade issues and immigration, the debate was full of solid questions.

We were particularly impressed with how President Obama took a question from a young lady about workplace fairness for women, and after mentioning that the first bill he signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the President then turned to women's health - and specifically birth control - as a financial issue for American women. This is a fact that is too often overlooked by men making healthcare policy for women.

Overall, President Obama had more than just better energy and presentation this time. Obama also had punch after punch, fact checking Mr. Romney at nearly every turn. Obama had all the facts, and more details in one answer than Mr. Romney provided all night.  Mr. Obama was a "professor" once again, but the kind you become friends with and have beers with later in life - not the stodgy, aloof, uptight guy you and all your friends made fun of back in school. Obama made the facts reachable for most Americans - which means those facts are significantly more likely to stick in their heads for the next twenty days.

President Obama finished both the night and Mr. Romney with a remark that Romney invited comment on in his own closing answer, a comment about the 47%. Obama noted that Mr. Romney is a good man and loves his family - but that Mitt Romney has no idea of who the real people in America are, the people that Mitt was writing off with that 47% remark, behind closed doors, when Romney thought most Americans would never hear his words.

We still think Obama is 100% correct with his assessment, that Mitt Romney is out of touch with what most Americans struggle with daily - and this debate clearly showed Romney simply doesn't have the skills to be a leader for all Americans.

The post-debate polls said Obama won, and our assessment of both the facts and the style of the second presidnetial debate agrees with those polls.

President Obama won this debate soundly.

Prepping For The Spin

The second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York will officially begin tonight at 9PM Eastern/8PM Central Time - but we can tell you with certainty that the truly influential part of the debate has already begun.

Over the weekend, both campaigns already began hinting at what might be coming tonight. But the first camp to break the ethical boundary and begin outright spinning the media for their candidate was - to nobody's surprise - the Romney campaign. This time Team Romney is trying a new approach, in that they're turning their blame cannon on the media itself - by insisting that the media wants an Obama comeback.

The theory behind that claim is that it will place the blame completely on the media for any anti-Romney remarks that are made after the debate, while also lowering expectations for Mr. Romney's performance tonight.

Sadly, we're almost certain that, like stupid dogs that chase any ball thrown their way, much of the media will take Romney's bait and pull back on their criticism of him.

You can rest assured: we're nobody's lapdog, and we'll be tough on both candidates. If Obama lies as much as Romney does, we'll certainly call him on it. If either man attempts to do something out of character, we'll call him on that too.

The format for tonight is the town hall format, which our staff is frankly somewhat divided on.

The town hall format is a debate development that was first tried twenty years ago, and it has its pluses and minuses. On the positive side, the format often forces the candidates to think on their feet, pivot quickly, and showcase their charm - something every President has to do daily for four years. On the negative side, it's a form of leaving the incredibly difficult work of vetting candidates to complete amateurs, at a level where it should be done by the very best professionals available.

As with all town hall debates, the crowd will have been partially screened for political makeup, and even to some degree for the questions the attendees say they might ask. As long as the questioners aren't screened out too intensely, tonight may provide more fireworks than some in the media believe it will.

Remember: people are unpredictable, especially when they know cameras are rolling.

Tonight won't be easy for the moderator, CNN's Candy Crowley. To start with, Ms. Crowley is facing significant pressure from both the Romney and Obama campaigns to follow a "Memorandum Of Understanding" both campaigns signed prior to the debate in Denver, and which was leaked Monday by Time's Mark Halperin.

Ms. Crowley will also likely be judged against ABC's Martha Raddatz, who did an incredible job moderating during the Vice Presidential Debate. Like many at the top levels of the media, Ms. Crowley is competitive and Ms. Raddatz's performance last week set a phenomenally high bar. Hopefully, that competitive nature may spur Crowley to be truly tough on both candidates. Crowley has also stated publicly that she will get involved in this debate and likely ask follow-up questions - which we fervently hope she does, in spite of both campaign's efforts to silence her in the role of moderator.

As with previous debates, we'll have an analysis of the event in tomorrow's edition, along with the applicable fact checks.

Get your popcorn and drinks ready, folks - and know that we'll be watching with you tonight.
We have a feeling this will be the real 'Must See TV.'

Putting On Scary Airs

As the 2012 election season races towards its inevitable closure in 22 days, we're seeing a significant increase in the fear-mongering techniques of certain political hopefuls and their supporters.

We're not really surprised at this behavior. We could just chalk it up to the coming celebration of Halloween during an election year and ignore the fake fear - but that wouldn't be the best idea. In fact, looking at just who is trying to scare the American people by ramping up the fear factor tells us a lot more about the state of this year's political races than most of the polls.

In case you missed it heading into the weekend, some of America's corporate plutocrats appear to be awfully afraid of President Obama winning this fall, given that they've taken to throwing massive temper tantrums in the form of threatening their employees to vote for Mitt Romney - or else.

The CEO of Westgate Resorts, who built the largest house in America (90,000 square feet!) along with the CEO of Koch Industries (one of the largest backers of the Republican Party), both sent letters to their employees recently, effectively telling them to vote for Mitt Romney, or they could lose their jobs.

This voter intimidation technique is not only ethically reprehensible, but it may also violate Section 11.(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It's also horrible business, since both letters effectively broadcast to the competitors of Koch Industries and Westgate Resorts that neither company is doing very well - and imply that neither company will be doing well in the future unless they can get unethical and/or illegal favorable treatment from the government.

There's more fear being spread in the churches too.

In Burlington, Iowa, a pastor at City Church recently began preaching about the removal of Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins, and displaying brochures that specifically call for Wiggins' removal - both of which are a blatant violation of Federal law. He's not the only one violating the 501c(3) law that gives churches tax-exempt status. Nearly 1500 pastors, preachers, bishops, rabbis and imams deliberately broke the law earlier this month, specifically in order to bring politics into their religious places.

We don't have a problem with religious organizations expressing opinions about the issues of the day. But if a church, synagogue, or mosque wants to get into politics, then they need to follow "man's laws" as well as their God's laws. In other words, if they want to advocate for the election or defeat of specific candidates or ballot measures, then it's time to start rendering unto Caesar.

The media's been driving a larger than normal share of fear too, lately. Corporate media execs, desperate to keep high ratings and sales, will most assuredly be flogging their staff members to call every political race a desperate tie - especially after the next Presidential debate this Tuesday.

Even the Romney/Ryan campaign has been spreading fear, as they've continued to politicize the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans even after multiple sources at the State Department have confirmed what Vice President Biden said last week in his debate.

The unifying trait we've noticed from all this fear-mongering is that almost all of it has been coming from the political right in America. Meanwhile, on the political left, the early voting returns keep showing significantly higher voting rates among Democrats and left-leaning independents than it does Republicans.

As we said earlier, we're not surprised at all the fear-mongering this year. We're just bored with it.

You'd think they could at least get better costumes.