Obama wins debate hands down

Before I say anything, Mitt Romney did a fine job tonight during the second presidential debate. He performed at about the same level he did in the first debate.

It wasn't enough.

When Romney felt obliged to let everyone know that he cared about 100 percent of the people, he left the door wide open for Barack Obama and the president wasted no time walking through it and clobbering his opponent.

When Obama noted that people generally say what they mean behind closed doors, he left the American people with the indelible impression of an out-of-touch Republican standard bearer who truly believes that 47 percent of the American people are deadbeats who are draining money and resources from those who are the top of the food chain, money which if you carry the analogy further could be better used to refurbish the summer home or hire a second limousine driver to take over when the regular one is on vacation.

All President Obama needed to do to score a victory tonight was to show up. In the first debate, an impostor was made up to look exactly like Barack Obama and did not do a very convincing imitation. Nowhere was the spark of life that seemed to emanate from the president from the first moments of this debate until the end.

He was able to secure his stranglehold on the Hispanic vote with a much more reasoned approach, noting the administration's record on securing the borders, while pinning Romney to the mat on his approval of Arizona's immigration law, the fact that his top immigration advisor authored that law, and noting twice Romney's ludicrous, unworkable self-deportation idea.

When the debate moved into women's issues, the president scored once more, noting Romney's failure to come out in favor of the Lillie Ledbetter legislation and being able to recite instance after instance of the administration working for women.

Romney, meanwhile, could do no better than say he was in favor of hiring women, which admittedly, is several steps above saying a woman's place is in the oven.

And how in the world did Mitt Romney think, with Bain Capital's background in moving jobs out of the United States and cutting jobs here, that he could win votes by threatening China, the country that has been the benefit of much of that outsourcing?

China is not going to roll over just because Romney is president, unless it is to roll over with laughter.

Romney offered few specifics on the economy, except to say he would fix it. Of course, we are supposed to take him at his word. And I would suspect Richard Nixon has a secret plan for winning the war in Vietnam.

Romney was scoring all the way through the debate by avoiding the perception that he was elite, out of touch, and did not care about those with less money than he has.

And then he blew it by leaving the door wide open for President Obama with his final remarks.

The bar was set much lower for President Obama tonight due to his miserable performance in the first debate. That being said, he did much more than simply improve his game.

The president made a powerful case for his re-election.