Presidential Debates 2012 - Polls: Who Won the Second Presidential Debate?

After Tuesday night's debate, various national and local polls proclaimed President Obama the clear winner.

This was a far cry from the poll results taken after the first presidential debate Oct. 2, which said Obama's soft attitude lead to his fall against Mitt Romney.

A Gallup poll, also taken Oct. 3, asked 1,387 registered voters "who did better in the first debate". Seventy-two percent named Romney, 20 percent said Obama and 8 percent said neither.

The stinging criticism Obama received Oct. 3 led to a much more aggressive and defensive performance during Tuesday's debate.

Latinos Post ran two unscientific polls asking "Who will win the Oct. 16 presidential debate?" prior to the debate and "Who won the second presidential debate?" after the debate and for the first poll 51.9 percent of 2,407 people believed Obama would come out winning the debate while 47.4 percent believed Romney was going to win. In the second Latinos Post poll 46.6 percent of 9,343 people said Obama had won while 44 percent said Romney had won. 

It listed other polls including CNN/ORC, which showed 46 percent saying Obama won and 39 percent saying Romney won. The Google Consumer Surveys poll showed Obama leading with an impressive 17 points at 48 percent saying he fared better. The Public Policy Polling survey in Colorado had a much smaller gap. Those voters said 48 percent thought Obama was better and 33 thought Romney was better.

Obama clearly more alert and energized this time around. Romney, who has consistently performed well, repeatedly attacked Obama about his presidential record and Libya. Obama held his own throughout, and at times, it seemed as if the two were going to engage in a heated conversation.

The Latinos Post article said it will take a few days for the polls to truly reflect how America feels about the president.

The next and final presidential debate will be held Monday night beginning at 9 p.m. EST.