Oct. 16, 2012 Presidential Debate Recap: Obama, Romney Clash in Second Meeting

President Obama and Gov. Romney took part in a heated and much anticipated debate last night at Hofstra University.

The debate started with first-time voter Jeremy Epstein who wanted reassurance for him and his parents that he will be able to sufficiently support himself after he graduates.

"I want to make sure we keep our Pell grant program growing," Romney said. "We're also going to have our loan program, so that people are able to afford school. But the key thing is to make sure you can get a job when you get out of school. I want you to be able to get a job."

Obama reassured Epstein by telling him that he wants to create good paying jobs.

One of the most interesting questions came from an undecided voter who wanted to know the difference President Bush and Romney.

Romney said him and President Bush are "different people and these are different times."

"I'm going to get us to a balanced budget," Romney said. "President Bush didn't. President Obama was right, he said that that was outrageous to have deficits as high as half a trillion dollars under the Bush years. He was right, but then he put in place deficits twice that size for every one of his four years. And his forecast for the next four years is more deficits, almost that large."

Throughout the entire debate, the pink elephant in the room was the attacks in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans.

Obama condemned Romney for trying to "make political points" when he issued a press release before the State Department could make a statement on the killings.

"That's not how a commander in chief operates," Obama said. "You don't turn national security into a political issue. Certainly not right when it's happening. And people -- not everybody agrees with some of the decisions I've made."

Romney countered Obama's response saying it took too long for the administration to say what happened in Libya.

"Whether there was some misleading, or instead whether we just didn't know what happened, you have to ask yourself why didn't we know five days later when the ambassador to the United Nations went on TV to say that this was a demonstration," Romney said. "How could we have not known?"

Throughout the 90-minute debate, 7.2 million Tweets were sent.

The specific moments that generated the highest amounts of conversation were the audience's question to Romney on immigration (109,560 TPM), Obama to Romney: "You're the last person to get tough on China" (108,619 TPM) and Romney's response to tax rates question (107,386 TPM).

The economy was the most-discussed topic last night, getting 28 percent of Tweets sent. The subject of taxes racked up 17 percent of Tweets; 16 percent focused on foreign policy, 13 percent on energy and the environment, and 8 percent on immigration.