President Obama delivered the feisty counterpunch supporters wanted. | REUTERS Obama fights back

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — He showed up.

An animated and aggressive Barack Obama clawed back Tuesday from his somnambulant first debate — and an often defensive Mitt Romney battled moderator Candy Crowley of CNN nearly as often as he went after the president.


Obama entered the critical second presidential debate at Long Island’s Hofstra University needing to stem Romney’s momentum in swing states — especially among moderate female voters who have flocked to the GOP nominee following a commanding performance in Denver nearly two weeks ago.

( PHOTOS: Scenes from the Hofstra debate)

On the surface, Obama seemed to have succeeded — at least in firing up his own base — although the polls will tell the tale in coming days.

If the president’s nail-gnawing supporters were mystified by his failure to attack Romney and put up a fight last time, Obama delivered the feisty counterpunch they demanded this time. He homed in on Romney’s perceived vulnerabilities, especially his wealth and lack of a common touch, in a series of dramatic center-stage confrontations between two men who radiated hostility toward each other.

( See also: Hofstra presidential debate transcript)

“Gov. Romney says he’s got a five-point plan?” Obama asked, mocking his opponent’s bullet-point presentation at the first debate. “Gov. Romney doesn’t have a five-point plan. He has a one-point plan. And that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules.”

Romney, for his part, repeatedly hammered the president for a set of policies he said “crushed” the middle class and expanded the deficit.

The debate as it appeared on the transcript — a reasonably rational, stat-packed discourse — was entirely different from the bull-ring visuals at the Mack Center here. In one odd exchange early in the night, the two met at center stage to argue, and Romney appeared to chase Obama as the president disengaged to saunter back to his stool.

( Also on POLITICO: Fact-checking the Hofstra presidential debate)

If Obama was caught flat-flooted in mile-high Denver, the lower altitude of Long Island seemed to disadvantage Romney, who appeared flustered and argumentative at some points, controlled and in command of the facts at others. He interrupted Crowley several times and challenged her on the rules of engagement — a practice that marred some of his debate performances during the primary — demanding that she allow him to finish his answers or cap off an Obama retort.

The audience “gasped audibly” when Romney told Obama “you’ll get your chance in a moment” during a heated exchange, according to a pool reporter in the hall.

And Crowley corrected the GOP nominee when he asserted that Obama hadn’t declared the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi a “terrorist attack.”

( Also on POLITICO: 10 best debate lines from Romney, Obama)

That gave Obama an opening — and he quickly accused Romney of politicizing the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Later, to the astonishment of those watching in the spin room, Romney took on Crowley to defend the overseas investments in his blind trust, a subject many GOP analysts hoped would be a no-fly zone for a wealthy candidate trying to convince voters he can empathize with their economic struggles.

“I’ve gotta continue,” Romney told Crowley, who reminded him that he was eating into time reserved for audience members’ questions.

“Just going to make a point. Any investments I have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust. And I understand they do include investments outside the United States, including in — in Chinese companies,” Romney said, as a smiling Obama stood nearby. “Mr. President, have you looked at your pension? Have you looked at your pension?”

In the most pointed one-liner of the night, Obama shot back: “I don’t look at my pension. It’s not as big as yours, so it doesn’t take as long.”

Romney also committed what Democrats — eager to regain an edge with women voters — cast as the first significant gaffe of the debates, introducing the unfortunate phrase “binders full of women” into the American political lexicon.

After one of the 82 undecided voters in the hall asked both candidates about gender pay equity, Romney responded by talking about his commitment to hiring women to his gubernatorial Cabinet.

“[W]e took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our Cabinet,” Romney said.

“I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks?’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.”

Obama had his own missteps, especially his remark that “There are jobs that aren’t coming back,” referring to low-wage positions that have been outsourced to China and other countries.

At times, Romney seemed so eager to defend himself against the more forceful Obama that he fought back before any attack had been launched, in one memorable instance preempting an assault by Obama on Romney’s infamous “47 percent” comment.

Romney said he would represent “100 percent” of Americans. The president responded with an attack on the hidden video at the end of the debate, when Romney had no chance to offer a retort.

Obama’s team tried to appear laid-back and matter of fact in the lead-up to the Denver debate, but the handful of Obama spinners who drifted into the media center before the fireworks on Long Island seemed jumpy — and entirely cognizant of the stakes. The electoral clouds have been lowering on the Obama campaign: Almost every major or minor state and national poll shows significant — if reversible — gains for a suddenly likeable and commanding Romney.

On Tuesday, a few hours before the debate, Gallup announced Romney had jumped out to a 50 percent to 46 percent lead among likely voters, his biggest edge of the cycle.

The mood was much different after the candidates left the stage this time.

In Denver, Obama’s aides took their time addressing reporters after the debate — as they tried to puzzle through a way to explain their boss’s baffling performance. This time, they sprinted down to the spin room.

Obama’s top White House adviser David Plouffe said he was so eager to talk to reporters that he skipped out on Obama — and hadn’t had time to gauge the president’s mood 30 minutes after the debate ended.