9:23 PM – Today
Crowley Calls Out Romney
aterkel @ aterkel : Crowley calling out Romney for not addressing assault weapons ban question - this is why follow-ups from moderator are good #debates
9:23 PM – Today
Obama To Romney: Looking At My Pension Doesn't Take As Long As Yours
In an exchange over immigration, Mitt Romney tried to return to a previous charge by President Barack Obama about his investments in Chinese companies, which make surveillance equipment that allow the communist government to spy on dissidents.
"Any investments I have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust and I understand they do include investments outside of the United States, including Chinese companies," said Romney, who criticized Sen. Ted Kennedy's blind trust as an age-old ruse in the 1994 Senate race.
"Mr. President have you looked at your pension?"
"Have you looked at your pension?" Romney said, turning to Obama and walking toward him.
"I don't look at my pension. It's not as big as yours, so it doesn't take as long," Obama said to laughter.
"Let me give you some advice," said Romney. "Let me give you some advice: You also have investments in Chinese companies, you also have investments outside of the United States. You also have investments in a Cayman trust."
Obama then turned the discussion turned back to immigration.
-- Luke Johnson
9:23 PM – Today
Cowed
jimmyasoni @ jimmyasoni : Both candidates so tentative on question of guns. Shows you how absurd this debate has become, how fearful they both are of the gun lobby
9:21 PM – Today
Romney Gives Bizarre Response
samsteinhp @ samsteinhp : two parent families is not really a response to a question on assault weapons
9:21 PM – Today
Romney Recalls Finding 'Binders Full Of Women' For His Gubernatorial Cabinet
The long-awaited first presidential debate question on women's issues addressed the subject of equal pay Tuesday night, and Mitt Romney did not take the opportunity to address whether he would have signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. But the candidate did recall how, as governor of Massachusetts, he sent women's groups out in search of qualified women for his cabinet because all of the applicants for those positions were men.
"They brought us whole binders full of women," Romney said. "I was proud of the fact that after I staffed my cabinet and my senior staff -- that the State University of New York in Albany did a survey of all 50 states and concluded that mine had more women in senior leadership positions than any other state in America. Now, one of the reasons I was able to get so many good women to be part of that team was because of our recruiting effort."
President Obama pointed out that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first bill he signed as president. He said the bill, which increases the legal avenues by which women can sue their employers over pay discrimination, was partly inspired by his grandmother's struggles in the workplace.
"My grandmother, she started off as a secretary at a bank," Obama said. "She never got a college education even though she was smart as a whip, and she worked her way up to become vice president of the local bank, but she hit the glass ceiling. She trained people who would end up becoming her bosses during the course of her career."
The president added, "Women are increasingly the breadwinners of the family. This is not just a women's issue. This is a family issue. This is a middle-class issue, and that's why we've got to fight for it."
-- Laura Bassett
9:20 PM – Today
Obama Talks Gun Violence
PatrickSvitek @ PatrickSvitek : Obama: "Frankly, in my hometown of Chicago, there's a lot of violence, and they're not using AK-47s. They're using cheap handguns" #debates
9:20 PM – Today
Obama Explains What Doesn't Belong
joannazelman @ joannazelman : Obama: Weapons designed for soldiers don't belong on our streets
9:19 PM – Today
Obama: I Believe In 2nd Amendment
politico @ politico : Obama: "I believe in the second amendment" but there have been too many instances where he was to comfort victims of gun violence.
9:19 PM – Today
Romney Attacks Obama Over Libya Response
howardfineman @ howardfineman : Mitt attacks O for flying to Las Vegas for a fundraiser a day after the Benghazi attack. O has stepped up his game, but Mitt's remorseless.
9:17 PM – Today
For The Record...
BuzzFeedAndrew @ BuzzFeedAndrew : Obama's exact quote is: "No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation."
http://t.co/yGtQZw2e9:17 PM – Today
Romney Falsely Claims Health Insurance Premiums Grew $2,500 A Year
Mitt Romney's assertion that health insurance premiums have gotten more expensive by $2,500-a-year during President Barack Obama's presidency is false.
Health insurance premiums for a family plan cost an average $15,745 this year, of which workers pay $4,316 on average and the employer picks up the rest, according to a survey of more than 2,000 employers conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. In 2009, Obama's first year in office, an average family plan cost $13,375 and the average employee's share was $3,515.
The total average increase during those years was $2,370 -- less than Romney claimed premiums increased each year under Obama. The average hike in the employee's share comes to $801. Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan made a claim similar to Romney's during his debate with Vice President Joe Biden last week.
Health insurance premiums almost doubled from 2002 to 2012 as the cost of health care continues to rise faster than the economy has grown, but has slowed in recent years.
“Premium growth is at historic lows," Maulik Joshi, president of the Health Research and Educational Trust and vice president for research at the American Hospital Association said in a news release when the organizations issued their survey findings last month.
This trend, however, doesn't fulfill a promise Obama made during the 2008 presidential campaign to reduce family health care premiums by $2,500 a year.
-- Jeffrey Young
9:17 PM – Today
Libya Comes Up
howardfineman @ howardfineman : Obama defends his foreign policy record but doesnt directly answer the question. Mitt says great the president does take the blame...
9:17 PM – Today
Candy Crowley Corrects Romney
HuffPostMedia @ HuffPostMedia : Candy Corwley corrects Romney: Obama 'did in fact' call Libya attack 'terror.' Obama: 'can you say that a little louder Candy?'
9:16 PM – Today
Obama Slams 'Offensive' Mitt
"Secretary Clinton has done an extraordinary job, but she works for me. I'm the president, and I'm always responsible," Obama said.
Obama went on to say it was "offensive" for Romney to play politics with the Libya attacks.
9:13 PM – Today
Romney Hits Obama For Fundraising
Romney: "The president, the day after [the Libya attack] happened, flies to Las Vegas for political fundraiser."
9:10 PM – Today
Romney Says He Won't Be Like Bush Because They're 'Different People'
One of the undecided voters at the Hofstra debate wasn't sure she was satisfied with President Barack Obama's four years, but she also blamed the policies of the Bush administration for a lot of America's problems.
So Susan Katz wanted to know Romney wouldn't do the same things.
"What is the biggest difference between you and George W. Bush? What differentiates you from George Bush?" Katz asked.
Romney didn't answer at first, preferring to go back to the previous question, but when he did, he didn't offer Katz much.
"President Bush and I are different people and these are different times," Romney told her, before launching into a long series of talking points that had little to do with the differences between Bush and Romney. Romney said they were things Bush never did, such as cracking down on China or making the U.S. energy independent.
Obama has repeatedly hammered Romney for offering the same sorts of economic policies as the Bush administration, including large tax cuts for the wealthy.
-- Mike McAuliff
9:10 PM – Today
Obama Asked About Libya
"I know these folks, and I know there families. So nobody's more concerned about their safety and security than I am," Obama said of his diplomats in Libya.
"We are going to find out who did this, and we are going to hunt them down."
"When folks mess with Americans we go after them."
"That's not how a commander in chief operates. You don't turn national security into a political issue."
"I am ultimately responsible for what's taking place there, because these are my folks, and I'm the one who has to greet those coffins when they come home."
9:10 PM – Today
Pension-Off
jonward11 @ jonward11 : Obama strutting a bit as he says, "I don't look at my pension. It's not as big as yours."
9:07 PM – Today
Obama Zings Mitt
Romney: "Mr. Obama, have you looked at your pension?"
Obama: "I don't look at my pension, it's not as big as yours."
9:06 PM – Today
Paved With Good Intentions
ariannahuff @ ariannahuff : Pols who talk about ending undocumented workers never talk about consequences -- like much higher food prices, etc.
9:06 PM – Today
Romney Denies 'Self-Deportation,' AZ Law Claims
"I did not say that the Arizona law was a model for the nation in that aspect," Romney said.
"Self deportation means let people make there own choice," Romney said. "I'm not in favor of rounding up people and taking them out of this country."
9:02 PM – Today
Obama Replies To Immigration Question
Obama: "We all understand what this country has become because talent from all around the world wants to come here."
"For young people who come here... think of this as their country. Understand themselves as Americans."
Obama went on to hit Romney for his "self-deportation" remarks and support of Arizona's controversial immigration law.
9:02 PM – Today
This Time Isn't Different?
jonward11 @ jonward11 : Reinhart and Rogoff wrote today about how this recession's slow recovery is about same as other systemic crises
http://t.co/77EVPhJe9:00 PM – Today
Romney Talks Immigration
"This is a nation of immigrants," Romney said. "I want our legal system to work better, I want it to be streamlined, want it to be clearer. You shouldn't have to hire a lawyer to get into this country legally... We should give [green cards] to people who graduate with skills that we need."
"We're going to have to stop illegal immigration," Romney continued. "I will not grant amnesty to those who come here illegally."
"I won't put in place magnets for people who come here illegally."
9:00 PM – Today
What Romney Didn't Say About Bush
When a questioner asked Mitt Romney what differentiated him from the last Republican president, George W. Bush -- she said she "feared a return to those policies" should Romney win -- he emphasized Bush's handling of the economy.
What he didn't say, however, is anything about foreign policy, and the two long (and deficit-inducing) wars the Bush administration got the U.S. into in the Arab World. Many people who watch the slowly emerging details of Romney's foreign policy, and the people he has surrounded himself with, wonder if Romney will end up bringing the return of an expansionist, neoconservative approach to the world.
At the American Conservative, Daniel Larison called Romney's foreign policy "Bush 2.0." It's an idea that may not sit so well with some voters. Or, during the town hall, it may have been an oversight.
-- Joshua Hersh