Poll: Obama edges Romney in second debate

CBS News/AP

Analysis by Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus and Lindsey Boerma

President Obama edged Mitt Romney for a win in the second presidential debate Tuesday night, 37 percent of uncommitted voters said in a CBS News instant poll.

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Poll: Obama edges Romney in second presidential debate

Moments following the debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., 37 percent of voters polled said the president won, 30 percent awarded the victory to Romney, and 33 percent called it a tie. After some particularly animated exchanges between the two candidates, 55 percent of voters said Mr. Obama gave direct answers, but 49 percent also said that about Romney.

As for who would do a better job of handling the economy, the president made some headway on closing that gap. Before the debate, 71 percent said they believed Romney would, while only 27 percent said they thought Obama would; after the debate, 34 percent said the president would better handle the economy, with 65 percent saying Romney would.

Obama would also be more likely to help the middle class, according to 56 percent of voters after the debate, compared with 43 percent who said that about Romney.

The survey polled 525 voters who are undecided or who may still change their minds. Most of these uncommitted voters are not affiliated with a political party: 56 percent describe themselves as politically independent, 21 percent identify as Republicans, and 23 percent are Democrats.

In a similar poll taken immediately following the first presidential debate, uncommitted voters agreed 2-to-1 that Romney was the winner.

This CBS News poll was conducted online using GfK's web-enabled KnowledgePanel(r), a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The poll was conducted among a nationwide random sample of 525 uncommitted voters who have agreed to watch the debate. Uncommitted voters are those who don't yet know who they will vote for, or who have chosen a candidate but may still change their minds.

GfK's KnowledgePanel participants are initially chosen scientifically by a random selection of telephone numbers and residential addresses. Persons in selected households are then invited by telephone or by mail to participate in the web-enabled KnowledgePanel(r). For those who agree to participate, but do not already have Internet access, GfK provides at no cost a laptop and ISP connection.

This is a scientifically representative poll of uncommitted voters' reaction to the presidential debate. The margin of sampling error could be plus or minus 4 percentage points for results based on the entire sample.

[JediConsular]

Mitt Romney's main point on Obama is the economy. The national deficit is huge and the unemployment rate is extremely high. Obama, however, has done things to combat this. I think that the main reason people prefer Romney over the President is the economy and the unemployment rate. However, if people look at the situation closely, you'll see that Obama makes much more sense. Obama's plan is to put more taxes on rich people and less taxes on the middle class, which is pretty much what Romney's plan wants to achieve, but Obama's plan is so much more effective. In addition to this, Obama is consistent. Obama never changes his view and sticks right to it. The fact that Mitt Romney doesn't say which exemptions, loopholes, and deductions he is going to lessen, is astounding. If there were these exemptions, loopholes, and deductions, the Obama administration would have dealt with them. Mitt Romney seriously needs to think about his economic plan. Regarding other things such as foreign policy, I am all for Obama. Governor Romney plans to give the US military an additional 2 trillion for programs the military doesn't even need! What a way to waste money?!Obama has done very well as commander-in-chief, however, he did make a mistake when handling the Middle East. I expected Mitt Romney to come down hard on Obama for that, but Mitt Romney seemed not to notice Obama's tactical errors. Concerning social policy, Obama's makes much more sense because Obama-care was modelled of the plan implemented in Mitt Romney's state and yet the Governor obstinately wants to repeal the act. Honestly, I think that though Obama has failed a little on the economic side, he is lowering the unemployment rate and America should be out of this slump in 4 years time if he is elected. So vote for Obama to save our future!!

[StrawserMom]

Perhaps they had Obama a higher score for the second debate because he was so bad in the first that they over-rated the second because of the improvement. His past still speaks for itself: Chicago corruption, Obamacare, apologizing for the United States, giving money to Muslim brotherhood that has possible ties with Al Queda, neglecting the safety of our ambassador and navy seals in Benghazi, hiding his information while demanding Romney's, stealing money from Medicare, deciding when people can not be given any more medical care (He thinks he is god?),setting women up to look weak and that they have to be taken care of, spending millions of dollars for abortions for women in other countries, 16 trillion in debt (do we really know how much that is?), U.S has had no credit rating for four years, unemployment at an all time high, brings over blocks of people to have them vote...where are their citizenship papers and ID's?, making a travesty of our Constitution, our American flag, our freedom of religion, being mentored by a communist throughout his life, has a college roomatethat reported just how bazaar his thinking is, ignores and denies the rights of the Jewish people (God will have him on that one as well as what he is doing to Christians, and is a self proclaimed Muslim. Suggestion: google these events and find out all the entries that speak on all these concerns. Watch 2016...it will scare you and you should be. Take it seriously.

[halvie54]

Oh Strawsermom, Take a deep cleansing breath and check out "banned Mormon cartoon" on youtube. There are many sites related to this one, but you'd better take one at a time. We don't want your head exploding.

[Nubfail]

So 65% believe Mitt would do a better job on the economy, yet Obama wins the debate? I'm confused. Mitt Romney hit Obama hard on a lot of things. The only thing Obama has on Romney is to keep spamming the whole 47% thing. Too bad any reasonable person will know that Romney does not actually think all retired persons and college graduates are lazy, but a good majority of that 47% are unproductive. I can tell you one thing, my kids are NOT going to be part of that 47% because they will be raised properly.

[steeepe]

So your kids will never lose their jobs because they were raised properly? Right.

[StrawserMom]

They say he won the debate on points...like a wrestling match, etc. Trouble is he has things to bring into the total like his first horrendous debate and all the other negatives. The media set it up that way.

[jimisrael1]

obama wins. romney is the son of a us traitor. lived in mexico with his 5 wives. mitt would sell your souls to china for 20 yen and take the pennies of your dead mothers eyes.

[StrawserMom]

That is all a LIE. Wash your mouth out with soap.

[timtlc2]

David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's Budget Director blasts Romney's business Experience in an upcoming book to be released in April 2013.

" Mitt Romney was not a businessman; he was a master financial speculator who bought, sold, flipped, and stripped businesses. He did not build enterprises the old-fashioned way—out of inspiration, perspiration, and a long slog in the free market fostering a new product, service, or process of production. Instead, he spent his 15 years raising debt in prodigious amounts on Wall Street so that Bain could purchase the pots and pans and castoffs of corporate America, leverage them to the hilt, gussy them up as reborn "roll-ups," and then deliver them back to Wall Street for resale"

Stockman disects Mitt's profitable deals showing them to be luck and a lot of widow dressing to unsuspecting investors. Mitt is what is wrong with America, not what is right. From a Reagan Republican!


http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/14/david-stockman-mitt-romney-and-the-bain-drain.html

[TimeToEvolve]

I think that a large majority does or will realize that Obama and the Democrats represent and support the lives of Middle Class Americans. And Robbed Me and the Republicons do not. Not since sometime before Franklin Roosevelt.

[GarysSS]

Since this next debate is about foreign policy, does anyone think Bob Schieffer will ask Pres Obama what he meant [under a hot mike] when he said to Dmitry Medvedev of Russia "I'll be able to do more once I'm re-elected". Or will the CBS network prove to the world that they're just as slanted as the NBC,ABC and other main streams.

[TimeToEvolve]

Those are all slanted far to the right because they are owned by conservative right wing Wall Street corporations.

[steeepe]

Watching the debate and Romney's rude behavior and mendacity, it occurred to me that he might be a psychopath. Studies show that they're not uncommon in the big business CEO group.

[steeepe]

Waswhatever: Sorry, I don't live in a mobile home park, You know nothing about me but make all kinds of assumptions. Are there any grocery stores in mobile home parks? I doubt it. Typical lack of critical thinking.

[StrawserMom]

I take it you never had any psychology classes....or you have the idenity of these two men confused. Obama's college roomate revealed how crazy Obama was/is.

[nomorebama]

What a joke! Raising taxes on the "rich" is not going to pay for Obamas outrageous spending! Its just a ploy to make poor people feel better.

The fact is....if you took ALL of the money from the top 1% it would only keep our government running for 3.5 months. THATS IT!

I find it ridiculous that people actually fall for this "fair share" garbage.

We have a spending problem in this country, not a tax problem!

[poly_tick]

Media/Liberal bias and class warfare:
The Media Research Center discovered that, between January and April, ABC's and CBS's evening news shows covered Romney's affluence 13 times more than that of Democratic Senator John Kerry during the same period in 2004, when he ran against Bush. MRC found no equivalent mention of Kerry's finances on NBC Nightly News. Kerry is far wealthier than Romney. The Senator personally has $240 million, according to Forbes magazine, and his ketchup-heiress wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, controls another $500 million to $1 billion — including a private jet called The Flying Squirrel. So the 2004 Democratic nominee's household contains at least $740 million, more than triple Romney's reported net worth of $230 million.