I lost count last night, during the debate, of how many times Obama asked Moderator Candy Crowley to either change the topic or how many times she cut off Mitt Romney to change the topic.

Each time Romney cornered Obama with facts to which Obama clearly didn’t want to respond, one of those two things happened.

Neither Crowley nor Obama however, could stave Romney off for the entire 90 minutes.

Romney shredded Obama on the economy and buried Obama under the record of his presidency. That moment came after a man who had voted Obama in 2008 asked him, essentially, why should I vote for you in 2012?

Obama responded with the talking points conjured up by his campaign, trying to highlight a dismal 4 years. It came across like a guy putting lipstick on a pig.

Romney showed the pig for what it has been over the past 4 years by simply quoting facts.

“I think you know better. I think you know that these last four years haven’t been so good as the president just described and that you don’t feel like your confident that the next four years are going to be much better either.

I can tell you that if you were to elect President Obama, you know what you’re going to get. You’re going to get a repeat of the last four years. We just can’t afford four more years like the last four years.”

From there, Romney literally listed the litany of Obama failures over the last 4 years and Obama, for one of the few times during the debate, sat quietly.

On gas prices and drilling, fact checks show that Romney actually UNDER estimated the number of public land drilling permits Obama has cut and Obama’s oft repeated campaign talking points regarding the subject were just plain lies.

On the topic of gas prices, Obama tried to claim that the reason gas prices were at only $1.86 when he took office compared to $4.00 today was because, astonishingly, the economy was in bad shape back in January of 2009.

“Well, think about what the governor — think about what the governor just said. He said when I took office, the price of gasoline was $1.80, $1.86. Why is that? Because the economy was on the verge of collapse, because we were about to go through the worst recession since the Great Depression.”

Really?

When the economy sucks…gas prices fall???

If that’s the case, after 2 credit downgrades, 4 years of $1 Trillion dollar + deficits, a national debt now over $16 trillion dollars, 43 straight months of unemployment over 8%, a comatose GDP of 1.2%, record numbers of people on food stamps, more people dropping out of the jobs market than finding work and the Fed printing money like there is no tomorrow…

Gas prices today, using Obama’s own explanation, should be around .50 cents per gallon.

And then there was Libya.

On this point, many feel that Romney missed a prime opportunity to nail Obama. I’m not sure I agree.

After being challenged by Romney for flying off to Vegas the day after the Benghazi terror attack, Obama said he stated that it WAS a terrorist attack in the Rose Garden that very day.

Romney chose to pounce on THAT verbage and Moderator, Candy Crowley, actually tried to assist Obama.

Again, checking the transcript OF that Rose Garden speech we find this:

“Of course, yesterday was already a painful day for our nation as we marked the solemn memory of the 9/11 attacks. We mourn with the families who were lost on that day. I visited the graves of troops who made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hallowed grounds of Arlington Cemetery, and had the opportunity to say thank you and visit some of our wounded warriors at Walter Reed. And then last night we learned the news of this attack in Benghazi.

As Americans let us never, ever forget that our freedom is only sustained because there are people who are willing to fight for it, to stand up for it, and in some cases lay down their lives for it. Our country is only as strong as the character of our people and the service of those, both civilian and military, who represent us around the globe.

No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.

Today we mourn for more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done.”

At best, Obama was painting with a very broad brush but, in fact, he never said, point blank, that Benghazi was a terrorist attack….He said it was a “terrible act.”

The FACT remains that Obama then spent the next 2 weeks dodging the question of whether it was or was not a terrorist attack. He told the View and Letterman that it was still under investigation. He sent Susan Rice to 5 Sunday shows to say it was a response to a You Tube Video. Hillary blamed it on the video. Standing in front of the caskets of the dead Americans, Hillary again blamed the video and Obama remained silent on the topic. 2 weeks AFTER the attack, Obama took the podium at the U.N. and mentioned the You Tube video 6 times. His press Secretary blamed the video and on and on it went.

The reason I don’t think Romney missed his opportunity is because, next Monday, the final debate is all about foreign policy and after Obama’s side stepping of the truth last night, Romney can now go full out on this next week.

Next Monday night, in Florida, Romney can slam the door on Obama as Obama’s foreign policy is equally as dismal as his economic policies.

Killing bin Laden is NOT a foreign policy…it’s a strategic military strike and so far, that’s all Obama has had to tout.

Hillary took the blame for security in Libya, manning up before Obama did but that clearly doesn’t excuse the lies or the cover up that’s taking place to this day.

While snap polls show Obama won the debate, the fact check fall out should erase that for any who care about the facts.

Obama was more aggressive, combative and quite clearly louder than in their first debate but…

Even though Obama increased his volume he couldn’t alter his record. No matter how loud, fast and often he repeats his lies…They are just louder lies.

The facts are these…Obama voters are going to vote for Obama. Romney voters will vote Romney.

It’s the undecided and independents who will decide and based on last night’s debate, and the issues most important to that demographic, the economy, they are leaning solidly now for Romney.

Independents and undecided voters who watched both debates have now seen 2 vastly different Obamas and the same steady, fact based straight forward Mitt Romney and that too makes a difference. They WILL check Obama’s facts, they see him as  desperate and that, I suspect, will continue the Romney momentum as new polls come out later this week.