Rockland Democrats met up again at CB Kitchen & Bar to watch Tuesday's presidential debate, and this time they felt things went a bit smoother for President Barack Obama.
“This debate went a lot better,” said Clarkstown Town Board member Stephanie Hausner. “I think the president took some debate advice from Vice President [Joe] Biden and really spoke up about his accomplishments over the last four years.”
Hausner and a group of 30-plus, many from the Rockland County Young Democrats, watched the debate Tuesday night at CB Kitchen, which has no affiliation with any political group.
While many at the watch party for the first debate said afterwards they thought Obama performed well, most of the talk in the days following was that Gov. Mitt Romney won the first debate. The Democrats were pleased to see Obama’s performance Tuesday night.
Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, vice president of the Young Democrats, said Obama’s performance was more what he’s come to expect from the president.
“He was clear and concise when he needed to be,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “He showed that passion that was not there a few weeks ago. He stood up to Romney.”
Hausner said she felt Obama had a big advantage Tuesday when discussing women’s issues, especially fair pay.
“I just didn’t think Romney connected with young women when he was talking about women’s issues,” Hausner said.
She added she thought it was a good move for Obama to bring up Romney’s plan to cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood, saying that former President George W. Bush didn’t cut funding to the organization and Romney’s plan is more extreme than Bush’s. Hausner also thought it was important so people could learn about what Planned Parenthood does.
“There are a lot of women in the country whose only kind of women’s healthcare is Planned Parenthood,” she said. “Most of what they do doesn’t deal with abortions.”
Hausner and Reichlin-Melnick both said they were pleased to see Obama call out Romney for the lack of specifics in his tax plan. Hausner said it goes back to when former President Bill Clinton said it was all about arithmetic at the Democratic Convention.
“The numbers just don’t add up,” Reichlin-Melnick said.
