Who Won Debate Last Night? Obama Is The Comeback Kid, Polls Show

Who won the debate last night is always a major topic of controversy in the media and on the web last night, and, if you tuned in for last night’s Obama-Romney showdown on Long Island, I think we can all agree on one thing: “Whoa.” And, at that, a Joey Lawrence “whoa.”

Who won the Obama-Romney debate at Hofstra is certainly a question that yields a different answer depending on who you ask, and the answers vary as widely as the political spectrum itself in the US. And who won the debate also hinges largely in your perception based on which issues you find key, also influencing the measured outcome in polls.

For many female voters, who won the debate was decided when Romney made his off-key “binders full of women” comment, now a trending topic on Twitter. Remarks about single parenting that managed to morph into a tirade about the Fast and Furious scandal also seemed to impact the opinion of many in that demographic, judging by sentiment on Twitter and Facebook.

But, if Obama went hard in his second debate showing, Romney certainly held his own and gave as good as he got. The Weekly Standard, a conservative news source, opined that, while Obama may have bested his opponent, the hands-on response was too little, too late to mitigate the effects of the last debate in polling:

“Too bad for President Obama that he saved his aggressive performance for his second debate with Mitt Romney. If he had done as well in the first debate, the presidential race might look different today.”

The writer, John O’Sullivan, concluded:

“Whatever the reason, they seemed more evenly matched by the end. And that impression retrospectively colored the judgments of critics on the entire evening.”

To the earlier “whoa,” it seems that many voters were either energized or turned-off (with little middle ground) by the tone of both candidates’ arguments in the second debate. But the strong commitment to getting the message out seemed to poll well with the base on either side, with lots of cheering and booing going down on social media as the candidates brought their platforms to the national stage.

Who won the debate seemed less ambiguous in polling during and immediately following the Obama-Romney showdown at Hofstra, though not by much. In CBS polling, who won the debate was clocked at 37 percent for Obama, 30 percent for Romney, and 33 percent calling the debate a tie.

Who do you think won the second Obama-Romney debate?