In wake of Mitt Romney’s dominating performance at the October 3^rd debate, the polls indicated that the Massachusetts governor slightly edged incumbent candidate Barack Obama in popularity. Factor in the margin of error, however, and the candidates were virtually deadlocked. As such, the October 16^th debate had the potential to be a propelling factor to lift one candidate above the other as November 6^th inches closer and closer. In a town hall style debate with residents of the town of Hempstead posing the questions, the roles were reversed as Obama seized the opportunity to redeem himself while a smug Romney stumbled over his awkwardly polemic phrasing. Though the victory’s magnitude was small in comparison to last debate’s, Obama’s confidence and overall logic in discussion of the election’s pressing issues including the Libya crisis and women graced him with this important triumph that liberal Americans hope will be sufficient enough to sway the undecided voters and tip the stalemate in favor of the blue party.

Besides the fact there was no blatantly obvious winner, this debate contrasted with the first because its overall atmosphere was far more hostile.  Even prior to the debate, a storm of controversy was already ensuing, primarily as a result of Candy Crowley, a very outspoken and rather blunt political correspondent for CNN, being named mediator. However, because the audience was responsible for asking the questions, Crowley did not have as much power to steer the symposium as Jim Lehrer did in the previous debate.  Criticisms aside, Crowley frequently injected herself into the arguments just as she said she would, especially as both candidates repeatedly violated the two-minute response guideline.

On Fox news, reporter Megyn Kelly voiced her opinion that Crowley “waded in to help the president.”  This was especially accurate when the debate channeled toward the Libya crisis.  Following the president’s accepting of the tragedy’s blame, Romney claimed that, “for fourteen days, Obama failed to call it an act of terrorism,” to which Obama assertively replied “check the transcript.”  Subsequently, Crowley completed a rare real-time fact check revealing that Romney was incorrect—Obama truly had referred to the event as terroristic.

Though both candidates were equally guilty of interrupting each other, Crowley seemed especially viscous while trying to control Romney saying things such as “Governor Romney, can you make it quick?” and “please have a seat.”  Regardless of whether or not it was intentional, Crowley’s mediating definitely slanted left and served as a key factor in securing Obama’s marginal defeat of the governor.

Perhaps one of the most important issues in the election is contraception coverage and pay equity for women, especially because the subgroup of women accounts for the highest number of undecided voters, and collectively, they have the capacity sway the vote one way or the other. In terms of topics like Planned Parenthood funding and abortion legality, viewers’ opinions most likely remained unchanged following the debate. Both candidates elucidated their policy ideas in order to equitably reshape our workplaces because currently, a woman typically earns only 72% the salary of her male counterpart.   Both Romney and Obama gave personal anecdotes explaining why women deserve the utmost respect, but both of the men were fundamentally hypocritical as they repeatedly disrespected a woman in front of the eyes of millions of viewers. Over the course of the debate, each of them addressed Crowley with sharp snippy attitudes while entirely ignoring her requests time and time again.

Regardless of his ironic actions, Obama still managed to be win out in the area of women, mostly as a result of Romney’s extremely obstinate and unintentionally discriminatory words.  The governor explained how he aspired to stock his diversify his cabinet with women. However, he implied that he had to literally go out and search for them door to door.  Once he went to various women’s groups, he explicated, “they gave him binders full of women.”  Viewers lashed out as a result of his awkwardly objectifying phrase, and within minutes, binders full of women was trending on twitter and provided the perfect fodder for the eager donkey following to rip apart Mitt Romney.

Naturally, the state of the economy was another major topic in the debate, but the candidates’ true plans were hidden beneath a blanket of fact, fiction, and mudslinging.  However, thanks to Candy Crowley’s tilted mediating and Romney’s awkward diction, Obama was able to redeem himself and edge Romney in this particular debate.  Right now, Obama and Romney are tied, but if the debates are an indicator of how the election will conclude, next Monday’s debate on foreign policy will be the final straw deciding which candidate will gain the “best two-out-of-three” advantage over the other.  After all, the world of politics really does parallel a game of rock-paper-scissors, doesn’t it?