Second Presidential Debate

Obama is seen as the clear winner in the snap polls, and I'd agree: if Obama have given this performance two weeks ago, the election would have been over.  The question now is: is Obama's return to form sufficient to arrest, if not reverse, the momentum in Romney's poll numbers nationally and in the swing states.  The change in the nature of the race is a result of the gender gap's shrinkage to about dead even.  In the swing states, a poll from today had Obama leading Romney among women 49% to 48%. Of great significance was Romney's demeanor toward moderator Candy Crowley combined with his reference to women "in the binder" that he drew upon to fill his Chief of Staff position as Governor of Massachussets.  Romney also committed an unforced error in the Libyan matter by not knowing that Obama had in fact the day after 9/11 referred to the assault on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya as as resembling "acts of terror."  When corrected by Crowley, Romney was never the same: he sank into an incompetent slump.  It's poetic justice that Romney tripped himself on this matter since he had seized upon it as an opening to condemn Obama's foreign policy leadership before the attack on the consulate took place.  It was arguably an unseemly effort to gain politically from a national tragedy where all Americans should have been pulling in the same direction, at least until the facts were in.  But Romney saw evidence of Obama's "apology tour," his "leading from the rear," and he couldn't pass up the opportunity to score political points when events were still unfolding.

Now we watch the polls and the forecasters like Nate Silver and Larry Sabato.  One would think that the keys to an Obama win -- namely, women in Ohio and Iowa and women and Latinos in Colorado and Nevada -- will take what they need from tonight's debate.