Presidential Debate: Bar Lowered For Obama Second Time Around

The presidential debate didn’t go too well for Obama the first time around, as a poor performance deflated his rising polls and handed momentum in the race to Mitt Romney, but, in the second debate on Tuesday, voters aren’t expecting as much of the president.

A Pew poll released Monday shows that voters are split on who they think will win the presidential debate, with 41 percent picking Obama and 37 percent favoring Romney. That is quite a turnaround from the first presidential debate when 51 percent thought Obama would win and just 29 percent picked Romney.

Both Republicans and Democrats are more confident in their candidate, The Huffington Post reported. Seventy five percent of voters from each party thought their respective nominee would emerge on top. Independents have shifted their view after favoring Obama in the first presidential debate 44 percent to 28 percent. They now favor Mitt Romney, with 42 percent telling Pew he would win the debate to 31 percent who thought Obama would do a better job.

For his part, Obama and his surrogates have promised a more passionate performance from the president. In the first debate, he was seen as too timid, allowing Romney to dictate the tempo of the debate. Obama later suggested that he was “just too polite” the first time and promised to be more aggressive in the next debate.

His polling chances could certainly use a better performance. Romney’s win in the first presidential debate allowed him to erase the growing gap Obama had opened in polls, though Obama has been able to scratch some of the losses back. The two now sit even in most nationwide polls, though Obama still holds small leads in many of the critical swing states.