Will the real Barack Obama please stand up?

(Tina Nelson/MJ)

By MARYANNE RAFKA, Staff Columnist

The second U.S. presidential debate was held last week and may I just say…bravo to President Barack Obama for doing the one thing the electorate has been waiting for him to do: call out Mitt Romney on his lies.

Whether it was the attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya, the economy, or taxes – every single time Governor Romney told a lie, President Obama was not afraid to call him out on it. And the best example of this was when Governor Romney claimed that President Obama did not consider the attacks on the U.S. embassy an “act of terrorism.”

Romney had a smug look on his face like he had just caught Obama and now he would surely say something to make the American people not want to reelect him, but the moderator – Candy Crowley – said directly to Governor Romney that he was lying, that President Obama did call it an act of terror.

Obama asked Ms. Crowley to repeat that, and she did, and the audience cheered. They cheered, because Mitt Romney was being called out on his lies throughout the entire night. However, that is not why President Obama won – and he did win.

The debate clearly went to Obama because – get ready for it – Romney. All Mitt Romney had to do was speak, and he lost the debate. When asked about how he would create jobs for the future generation about to graduate from college, he responded with something along the lines of, “I know how to create jobs. I will create jobs.”

When asked about how he would bring outsourced jobs back to the United States, Mitt Romney had no clear plan except “lowering taxes.” And when asked about how he would create and promote equity between men and women in the workforce, Mitt panicked. He didn’t know what to say, except that he went through “binders of women” because he felt “we needed to get more women” in his cabinet. Not only this, but he made a remark that may have cost him what he had left of the female vote: he discussed flexible work hours for women so they could be home to “cook dinner.”

Romney handed the debate to Obama, and Obama gladly took it. The President did not waste any time in mentioning his jobs plan, his focus on education, his tax code, his plan to invest in infrastructure, technology, manufacturing, and energy, and where he stands on women’s issues.

The President won by a landslide. Why? Because he was smart, progressive, and rational. His comprehensive policies and progressive stances made me wish the election was that night, because there’s no doubt he would’ve won. He made Mitt seem like a man of old times who didn’t understand the struggles of families today and where people stand on social issue, especially immigration.

The President was the comeback kid. I can’t think of a single reason why Mitt would be better for the job that the President has so eloquently occupied for almost four years.