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Barack Obama supporters with long memories might have come into this debate fondly remembering a "Saturday Night Live" skit from early in the Obama administration, and hoping that something like it might emerge at Hofstra University.

In that skit, at a time when the fierce, foul-mouthed Rahm Emanuel was still White House chief of staff, the Emanuel character falls asleep in the Oval...

Finally, taxes. A little over 30 minutes into this clubber-style debate, President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney addressed their plans for taxes, which quite frankly have been a moving target during this campaign. Neither candidate says he will raise taxes on the middle class, and much of their differences center on higher-income earners.

The president wants to return to Clinton-era rates...

And now a narrower question: How will we make wages equal for men and women?

I've always thought this was a more complex question than people make it out to be. I certainly support equal pay for equal work, but I also know there are a lot of cases where it is difficult to define equal work. It can't just be based on job title, or even seniority.

Both candidates are doing pretty well...

Former New York Gov. George Pataki arrived in the spin room at the front of the media center at Hofstra asking, "Doesn't anybody want to talk to me?"

Maybe the members of the foreign press jammed in the rear of the Hofstra sports complex adjacent to the debate hall would try, but they aren't really sure who is who, they just follow the swarm.

Many others with credentials are...

Mitt Romney goes first on a question about what is going to happen with major tax deductions, like for mortgages and charitable donations,  as well as child tax credits.  It's a good one to ask Romney because he has a lot to explain about how he pays for his 20 percent across-the-board tax cut. He's very big on cutting taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains for the non-rich, which...

The second question is on energy, and prices and the Energy Department, and the candidates' plans. Obama touts new energy, and increased natural gas and oil exploration, and increased fuel standards.

Obama is on the attack in every answer, always touting what he will do, then trashing Romney.

Romney argues that none of the additional oil production over the past four years came on federal...

Let the empathon (empathython? empathothon?)  begin. Each candidate gets two minutes to answer each question, then moderator Candy Crowley gets two minutes to try to get them to expand on their answers in a meaningful way (good luck with that).

Mitt Romney gets to answer the first question first, and it's a 20-year-old asking how they can assure him he'll get a job when he graduates.

Two...

It's about 6 in the evening and the Hofstra University campus is abuzz with spinners and spinnees in the lead-up to this evening's presidential debate. After President Barack Obama's debacle in Denver and Mitt Romney's triumph, the stakes have actually risen for both candidates. Obama suddenly finds himself in a close race he must take very seriously, and Romney's rise has made his every move far...

Nearly 60 million people will watch the second debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on television, so optics matter. How the candidates look may sway voters as much as what they have to say. That’s too bad.

The nation’s economy is in a rough place right now and the world is more complex than ever.  The candidates’ warring visions of where they’d lead the nation — and the details...