Democratic pollster Doug Schoen tells Newsmax that President Barack Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney are “still in a dogfight” following the second and most raucous presidential debate of the campaign.
“It was ultimately a draw,” declared Schoen, a Newsmax contributor. “The polls may stabilize — maybe a point or two movement to Obama if only because he showed some life.”
While Schoen praised the president and Romney for strong performances, he said that CNN’s Candy Crowley may have tipped the encounter from going to Romney when she appeared to side with Obama — at least initially — on the issue of Benghazi, and specifically whether the president had called the incident an act of terror on Sept. 12.
“When Candy Crowley said the president is right — he referred to terror — it changed the narrative from the debate about the Libyan policy to what did the president say and when, which ultimately is a win for the president,” according to Schoen.
He said that the president “showed more life” than his first debate performance which was widely panned by political observers from both parties.
“He did particularly well in the second half of the debate. He managed to blur the issue on Libya,” Schoen explained. “Romney was strong; arguably compelling. So was the president.”
But Schoen added that the raucous town hall debate settled nothing in the end.
“Bottom line — we are still in a dog fight,” said Schoen. “We are still in a race that could go either way and today’s debate was nasty and ultimately did not really resolve the question.”
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