The second presidential debate featured a much more heated exchange between the two candidates as they discussed domestic and foreign issues in a more informal setting.

The second presidential debate between President Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney was held Tuesday night at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. It was in a town hall format, in which the questions directed at the candidates came from 40 undecided voters instead of the moderator, CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley.

The first question, asked by a 20-year-old college student, was: “What can you say to reassure me, but more importantly my parents, that I will be able to sufficiently support myself after I graduate?”

Both candidates used their response time to discuss job growth and job creation.

“I want you to be able to get a job,” Romney said. “I know what it takes to get this economy going.”

Romney said the Obama administration has increased debt and failed to create jobs. Half of this year’s graduating class will not have a job after graduation, he said.

“When you come out in 2014, I presume I’m going to be president. I’m going to make sure you get a job,” Romney said.

Obama responded by saying it’s important to not only create jobs, “but good-paying jobs.”

The president brought up job creation throughout the debate and criticized Romney for supporting tax loopholes for companies that ship jobs overseas.

The second question related to oil and whether it’s the energy department’s job to lower gas prices.

Obama stated that while “there’s no doubt” that world demand for oil has gone up, domestic production of oil has gone up as well. He stressed that oil imports are the lowest they have been in 20 years.

“Let’s look at the president’s policies, all right, as opposed to the rhetoric,” Romney retorted.

He stressed that while domestic oil production has increased under the Obama administration, the production has come from privately owned land, instead of government-owned land.

The candidates also discussed how to rectify the inequality in women’s wages.

Obama referenced the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which he signed into effect on Jan. 29, 2009.  The act states that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination resets with each new paycheck affected by that discriminatory action.

While governor of Massachusetts, Romney said he made sure his cabinet was staffed with women as well as men. After his staffers brought him lists of candidates that were predominantly men, he asked them to search instead for women to staff his cabinet. The staffers then brought him “whole binders full of women” from which he hired his staff.

In perhaps the tensest moment of the night, the two candidates exchanged heated remarks over the controversy surrounding the Libya terrorist attack.

Romney accused Obama of taking too long to refer to the act as a terrorist attack and criticized the president for turning too quickly to politics afterwards.

Obama disagreed with Romney’s assessment of his response and said suggesting that he or anyone on his team played politics with the situation is “offensive.”

The final debate will be held Oct. 22.

Published on October 17, 2012 at 2:15 am

Contact Michael: mahacker@syr.edu