City Council Speaker Christine Quinn unveiled a campaign app outside of the Midtown Apple store. (Photo: Jill Colvin)

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn laughed off suggestions Thursday that she had purposely scheduled a press conference to rain on an opponent's endorsement parade--the second time she's been accused of using the tactic in recent months.

“We should be so well-organized to figure everything out on that level!" said Ms. Quinn, bursting into awkward, raucous laughter when Politicker asked about the timing of her Thursday press conference unveiling a new mobile app for her campaign.

(Her cackle is a particularly well-known response mechanism in city politics.)

Ms. Quinn's campaign sent out a scheduling announcement for the event hours after former Comptroller Bill Thompson's campaign announced "a major endorsement of his plans to rebuild New York City's working class" at the same time outside of City Hall.

"Cynicism--apparently, there's an app for that," one political insider remarked on the timing.

But Ms. Quinn said the timing had nothing to do with Mr. Thompson, and that the event was simply fit in between a morning briefing on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's final executive budget speech and a City Council smoking hearing.

“It’s just a time that worked," she said.

Ms. Quinn was previously accused of stepping on an opponent's toes when she made a surprise announcement that the council would pass a bill reducing street vendor fines just as Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, her most vocal critic, was about to unveil a report on small business fines on the steps of City Hall.

“How convenient!” Mr. de Blasio told reporters sarcastically at the time, marveling at what he called “a stunning coincidence.” Ms. Quinn's council office insisted at the time it was.

For his part, Mr. Thompson tried to keep the focus on his own news: endorsements from Bronx Congressman José Serrano and his son, State Senator José Serrano.

"You're going to have to ask other people about their campaigns," he told Politicker when he took questions afterwards. "I just know that today, this is a great day for my campaign. This is a great day being able to stand with two very distinctive New Yorkers as we look to move New York City forward. We're not looking to divide. We're not responding to others."

Ms. Quinn, the early front-runner in the race, also brushed off suggestions Thursday that she has been scaling back her attendance at mayoral forums to avoid increasingly pointed attacks from her rivals.

“The only reason we weren’t able to attend last night or tonight was just because of other commitments, scheduling conflicts," she said, noting that she'd attended somewhere between 30 and 40 forums already and was committed to attending about a dozen more over the coming weeks.

“It’s been this way for a lot of candidates,” she said, adding that several of her opponents had missed events, too. “Just, unfortunately, sometimes the schedule precludes you to being everywhere and at every event."

Additional reporting by Colin Campbell.

Bob Schieffer (Photo: CBS)

One of the biggest gaffes during last night's presidential debate came from the moderator, CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer, who accidentally referred to the late Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as "Obama bin Laden" while discussing Pakistan. Though this was one of the most talked about moments of the evening, for over twelve hours after the debate, there was no mention of the mistake on CBS News' website where the posted transcript of the debate omits the exchange.

As of this writing, the transcript of the debate on the CBS News website is missing an approximately 2,400 word segment that includes Mr. Schieffer's "Obama bin Laden" slipup. Where that portion of the debate begins, the site instead doubles back over a previous segment that is about 2,900 words long. After the repeated portion, the transcript features the conclusion of the debate that comes after the omitted portion on Pakistan.

Due to the omissions in the transcript, there was no mention of Mr. Schieffer's verbal stumble on the CBS News site for over fourteen hours after the debate concluded. At, 12:32 p.m., CBS News posted an Associated Press story about Mr. Schieffer's performance that briefly mentioned the "Obama bin Laden" gaffe in its twelfth paragraph.

"Schieffer did have one gaffe, referring to the former al-Qaida head as 'Obama's bin Laden,'" the story said.

Apart from the omissions and doubled portions, CBS News' debate transcript appeared to match a transcript that was distributed by several other organizations and was produced by the transcription firm Morningside Partners. Several idiosyncrasies from the Morningside transcript are preserved in the CBS News version including an instance where the Israeli holocaust memorial Yad Vashem is phonetically referred to as "Yad Beshef" and a line where Mitt Romney's name is accidentally misspelled as "Romnehy."

There are indications the many mistakes in the CBS News transcript may have been widespread issues rather than part of an attempt to avoid including Mr. Schiffer's slipup. At about 2,400 words, the portion of the debate omitted from CBS News' transcript obviously included a lot more than the gaffe and, with the other repeated segment, it was far from the only major error in the transcript.

We reached out to a CBS News spokeswoman to ask how the multiple mistakes in the transcript occurred and whether they would be corrected. As of this writing, we have yet to receive a response.

Ann Coulter (Photo: Getty)

As is her custom, provocative conservative commentator Ann Coulter was decidedly politically incorrect in her assessment of the final presidential debate last night. Ms. Coulter took to Twitter where she used a derogatory term to describe President Barack Obama.

"I highly approve of Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard," Ms. Coulter wrote.

Her comment comes less than two weeks after Dan Niblock, the father of a young boy with Down syndrome, published an essay on the website of NBC's Today taking Ms. Coulter to task for using the same term in another tweet. It's apparently a habit of Ms. Coulter's.

"I want Ann Coulter to apologize for using a form of hate speech that is particularly searing to people who have special needs. This isn’t the first time she has tweeted the word “retarded” to insult her rivals, and she needs to stop. Her behavior is not acceptable," Mr. Niblock wrote.

These complaints clearly haven't had much effect on Ms. Coulter, who has been unapologetic of her past politically incorrect remarks. Still, we reached out to Ms. Coulter to see if she had any regrets about her post-debate tweet. As of this writing, we have yet to receive a response. We won't hold our breath.

Update (3:00 a.m.): In an email to Politicker, Ms. Coulter doubled down and made it clear she's not worried about upsetting anyone with her choice of words.

"The only people who will be offended are too retarded to understand it," she wrote.

Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama on stage at Lynn University in Florida for tonight's debate. (Photo: Getty)

Tonight's presidential debate was ostensibly about foreign policy, but on stage in Boca Raton, the candidates spent quite a bit of time discussing the American economy. The discussion first turned homeward when moderator Bob Schieffer asked Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama, "What is America's role in the world?"

Mr. Romney began by saying America has the "responsibility and the privilege" to "defend freedom and promote the principles that...make the world more peaceful," including "human rights, human dignity, free enterprise, freedom of expression, elections."

"We recognize that there are places of conflict in the world. We want to end those conflicts to the extent humanly possible. But in order to be able to fulfill our role in the world, America must be strong. America must lead. And for that to happen, we have to strengthen our economy here at home," Mr. Romney said. "You can't have 23 million people struggling to get a job. You can't have an economy that over the last three years keeps slowing down its growth rate. You can't have kids coming out of college, half of them can't find a job today, or a job that's commensurate with their college degree. We have to get our economy going."

When it was President Obama's turn to take the question, he discussed his domestic economic plan in even more specific detail after saying one of his signature accomplishments, ending the war in Iraq, had improved America's position both globally and locally.

"Because we ended the war in Iraq, we were able to refocus our attention on not only the terrorist threat, but also beginning a transition process in Afghanistan. It also allowed us to refocus on alliances and relationships that had been neglected for a decade. And Governor Romney, our alliances have never been stronger," President Obama said. “But what we also have been able to do is position ourselves so we can start rebuilding America, and that's what my plan does."

President Obama went on to detail several elements of his economic plan.

"Making sure that we're bringing manufacturing back to our shores so that we're creating jobs here, as we've done with the auto industry, not rewarding companies that are shipping jobs overseas. Making sure that we've got the best education system in the world, including retraining our workers for the jobs of tomorrow," said President Obama. "Doing everything we can to control our own energy. We've cut our oil imports to the lowest level in two decades because we've developed oil and natural gas. But we also have to develop clean energy technologies that will allow us to cut our exports in half by 2020. That's the kind of leadership that we need to show."

The president continued by criticizing Mr. Romney's economic policies.

"Unfortunately, Governor Romney's plan doesn't do it. We've got to do it in a responsible way by cutting out spending we don't need, but also asking the wealthiest to pay a little bit more. That way we can invest in the research and technology that's always kept us at the cutting edge," said President Obama. "Now, Governor Romney has taken a different approach throughout this campaign. Both at home and abroad, he has proposed wrong and reckless policies. He's praised George Bush as a good economic steward and Dick Cheney as somebody who's -- who shows great wisdom and judgment. And taking us back to those kinds of strategies that got us into this mess are not the way that we are going to maintain leadership in the 21st century."

When Mr. Schieffer gave Mr. Romney a chance to rebut, he brought up the country's unemployment rate and promised to get America's economy going with his five point plan.

"The president said by now we'd be a 5.4 percent unemployment. We're 9 million jobs short of that. I will get America working again and see rising take-home pay again, and I'll do it with five simple steps," Mr. Romney said.

Mr. Romney described his economic plan as involving "North American energy independence," increased trade, particularly with Latin America, "training programs that work for our workers and schools," which put "the teachers and the kids first" and make teacher's unions "have to go behind." balance the budget and "champion small business."

The pair launched into discussions of their specific disagreements with each other's policies including their respective tax plans and President Obama's desire to "hire more teachers." Though the debate included substantial discussion of Libya, Syria, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia and China, this first exchange was hardly the only time the candidates kept their focus on the home front. Tonight's debate mainly stuck to the topic at hand, foreign policy, but it still underscored just how much domestic economic questions are central to this campaign.

(Photo: Getty)

In one of the more memorable exchanges of tonight's final presidential debate, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney clashed while discussing the focus of our military. After Mr. Romney attacked Mr. Obama over the size of the U.S. Navy and Air Force, Mr. Obama accused his Republican rival of being uneducated about "how our military works," quipping, "The question is not a game of Battleship where we're counting ships."

The discussion began when the candidates addressed military spending and the size of our deficit.

"We spend more on our military than the next ten countries combined," Mr. Obama contended after Mr. Romney went on the attack against the administration's debt accumulation. "What I did was work with our Joint Chiefs of Staff to think about what are we are going to need in the future to make sure we are safe. And that's the budget that we put forward....When it comes to our military, what we have to think about is not just budgets, but we've got to think about capabilities. We need to be thinking about cybersecurity, we need to be thinking about space. That's exactly what our budget does, but it's driven by strategy. It's not driven politics."

Mr. Romney, however, went into consultant mode and delivered a department-by-department critique of the military under President Obama's leadership.

"Our navy is smaller now than any time since 1917," Mr. Romney argued. "The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission, we're now down now to 285. We're headed down to the low 200's if we go through the sequestration. That's unacceptable to me. I want to make sure we have the ships that are required by the Navy. Our air force is older and smaller than any time since it's been founded in 1947....This is in my view is the highest responsibility of the President of the United States, which is to maintain the safety of the American people."

In the condescending tone he took at many points during tonight's debate, Mr. Obama went on the counter-attack to say Mr. Romney has a fundamental misconception of how America's military might exert itself.

"I think Governor Romney maybe hasn't spent enough time looking at how our military works," the president said to his electoral foe. "You mentioned the navy, for example, and then we have fewer ships since 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because of the nature of our military spending. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. Ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. The question is not a game of Battleship where we're counting ships."

Watch the video below, courtesy of BuzzFeed:

George Pataki. (Photo: Getty)

Former Republican New York Governor George Pataki was one of the surrogates backing Mitt Romney on "spin alley" after last night's presidential debate at Hofstra. Politicker used the opportunity to ask Mr. Pataki which GOP candidates he thought might emerge to challenger the crowded field of Democrats who are likely to run for mayor in next year's election. So far two political newcomers, Manhattan Media CEO Tom Allon and Doe Fund boss George McDonald, are the only ones who have declared their intentions to run on the Republican line, but Mr. Pataki indicated there may be other Republicans mulling a mayoral bid.

"There are a number of people who are talking about running," said Mr. Pataki. "I'm hopeful that we'll have a strong candidate."

Mr. Pataki went on to explain he believes it's in the best interests of the public in any election for there to be strong candidates from both major parties.

"I'm a great believer in the two-party system. I think government works best when, even if there's a dominant party, that it's held accountable," the ex-governor said. "I fear in New York too often we have one-party politics. And it doesn't work when it's Democrats in New York City or in the state, it doesn't work if it's Republicans some place else. The checks and balances of vigorous debate, like we had tonight, are what serve the people the best."

Since Mr. Pataki hinted there may be other Republicans with their eye on the race waiting in the wings, we asked whether he was aware of any potential candidates he might be willing to endorse.

"There are some. There are some," said Mr. Pataki. "Sure, no one has formally decided they're going to run, but a number of people are looking at it and talking about it, and I hope we do get some very good candidates in there."

Based on Mr. Pataki's apparent awareness of potential Republican mayoral candidates who haven't made their interest in the race public, we asked whether he was communicating with them directly.

"They're talking to people who are associated with me; some have talked to me directly," said Mr. Pataki, coyly.

Potential Republican mayoral candidates wasn't the only subject we discussed with Mr. Pataki after the debates. While the surrogates were doing their thing in "spin alley," the Yankees were finishing up their ALCS loss to the Detroit Tigers. Before speaking to us, Mr. Pataki was asked by another reporter if he was aware of the outcome in the game, which had just concluded.

"I don't know," Mr. Pataki said.

With a heavy heart, we volunteered that the Yankees had lost.

"They lost? Did Verlander go the whole way?" Mr. Pataki asked referring to the Tigers' ace starting pitcher.

We informed him that Mr. Verlander stayed on until the ninth inning when he gave up a home run to Yankees shortstop Eduardo Nunez.

"What the final score?" Mr. Pataki asked.

After being told the Tigers won 2-1, Mr. Pataki shook his head.

"Oh no, disappointing," he said. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Illustration: Philip Burke

As governor of a high-profile state with an almost astronomical approval rating and proven bipartisan appeal, Andrew Cuomo would seem a powerfully effective campaign-trail surrogate for President Barack Obama. However, though last night's presidential debate was held in his beloved home state, the governor's name did not appear on the list of spin room surrogates distributed by the Obama campaign yesterday morning. Fellow governors Martin O’Malley of Maryland and Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, had signed up to give their post-game assessments to throngs of national media, as had local New York politicians Senator Chuck Schumer and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez. But not Andy.

Though he wasn't part of the Obama campaign's official post-debate presence, however, Governor Cuomo, whose office had been made aware Politicker was working on a story that included discussion of his relationship with the Obama campaign, strolled onto spin alley a short time after the sanctioned surrogates had begun speaking to the assembled reporters.

“I didn’t know you had to sign up for an official surrogate,” he told us when we asked why he wasn't on the Obama campaign's list of spin alley representatives.

We pointed out that the other, official surrogates stood in front of tall signs that marked their presence in the crowd.

“Yeah, I didn’t sign up for a sign,” he responded.

Reporters began to shift the discussion to other topics, but the governor paused for several seconds, musing over his unique status.

“I’ve been in the spin room many times, I don’t think I’ve ever had a sign, as a matter of fact,” he said, staring at another surrogate’s sign in front of him. “I wonder if that means something?”

Mr. Cuomo isn't the only one wondering.

His surprise debate appearance was just the latest example of the governor’s maverick, relatively under-the-radar presence on the campaign trail. Both Mr. Cuomo and Mr. O’Malley are widely touted as possible candidates for the 2016 presidential election, but when it comes to their forays into the national political arena this time around, the two men are pursuing divergent strategies. Since June, Mr. O’Malley has eagerly taken a public role in the president’s re-election campaign at least 17 times, releasing multiple statements on behalf of Mr. Obama, appearing on both cable and network news to discuss the election, participating in Obama campaign conference calls, and offering the administration’s take at the Republican National Convention, the Democratic National Convention and the two presidential debates held so far. Mr. Cuomo, by contrast, has marched to the beat of his own drum and kept his focus squarely on his home state, burnishing a carefully controlled brand as the brash, bipartisan reformer who finally parted the clouds in Albany, ushering in an era of relative peace and prosperity after years of darkness and dysfunction. Meanwhile, he has kept even the local press at arm’s length, doing regular interviews only with a pair of preferred radio reporters, rarely holding briefings and, according to multiple Albany journalists, cutting off access to reporters whose coverage is deemed unflattering by the governor’s office.

At last night's debate, we asked Mr. O'Malley why he thought Mr. Cuomo hasn't take a more public role pushing for President Obama's re-election effort and why the New York governor wasn't with him on the official surrogate list.

"You know, surrogates and governors do, I'm sure, all that they can to help the campaign," Mr. O'Malley said. "Everybody has demanding schedules. Deval Patrick was here tonight, he's not able to make each of these. And so, we all do as much as we can whenever we can I think. And I think that's true of Governor Cuomo."

Indeed, Mr. Cuomo was elected to be a governor, not a TV talking head, and his success in Albany is attributable precisely to the intensity he’s brought to the task at hand. But, perhaps ironically, the same aloofness from the national campaign that has fueled his popularity—leading to all that speculation about a White House bid—has also created some friction among top Democrats whom he will need to turn into allies if he does indeed mount a national campaign.

“The truth is that this is someone who is perceived to be about one thing, and that’s Andrew Cuomo,” complained one well-placed national Democratic operative. “That is all he cares about. He has not lifted a finger to help the president.”

When asked to comment on the state of his relationship with the president’s re-election campaign, the governor's office pointed to Mr. Cuomo's attendance at several private fundraisers and his trip to the Democratic National Convention last month.

While Mr. O’Malley and other local politicians have eagerly pitched in to publicly bolster Team Obama, Mr. Cuomo has taken a far more low-profile role. For instance, the governor has participated in several private fund-raisers for the president’s re-election effort, according to his office. Although he did make the trip to the convention last month, it raised eyebrows among prominent Democrats that he stayed clear of the official proceedings, declining to make his schedule known until the last minute and then delivering a single speech before the New York delegation—at a hotel six miles from the convention center. In the speech, the governor made sure to “thank President Barack Obama for what he has done for our state” and stressed the importance of the election, but the gesture struck some observers as decidedly ambivalent: The off-site address came off largely as a victory lap for Mr. Cuomo’s signature achievements during the first half of his term in New York, which include legalizing same-sex marriage and reforming the state tax code and the pension system.

His eagerness to characterize his administration as a successful laboratory for liberal policies was underscored by a sign that hung behind him as he spoke and by buttons handed out to guests, which boldly declared in all-capital letters, “NEW YORK STATE PROGRESSIVE CAPITAL OF THE NATION.” While he praised the president’s political “philosophy,” he described the Empire State as a shining example that Mr. Obama has followed.

“We know the president is right, and we know he can do these things, because we are doing these things in New York!” he said. “We know we can find savings in Medicaid and still give people the health care they need, because we’re doing it in New York! We know you can tax people fairly, not a flat tax, not everyone-pays-the-same-tax rate, which is what we had in New York, but a simple premise that says this: the more you make, the more you should pay. That’s fair, that’s progressive, the tax code that we just put into place in New York.”

Gov. Cuomo’s conspicuous avoidance of this year’s presidential campaign might just be a reflection of his unstinting commitment to the job he was elected to do—being an effective and resourceful chief executive of the Empire State: he’s simply too busy working day and night on the issues that matter most to New York residents to get swept up in the national race.

Or maybe, as a number of sources suggested, there’s more to it: a carefully crafted political strategy to cement his brand as a bipartisan reformer without getting tarnished by the ideological back-and-forth of a contentious national campaign. When Mr. Cuomo took office in January 2011, Albany was still reeling from the impact of Eliot Spitzer’s sex scandal, the somewhat hapless performance of Mr. Spitzer’s successor, David Paterson, an array of corruption cases and the endless legislative squabbling that had led to late budgets for five years in a row prior to his arrival.

“In large part, when Andrew first came in, he did everything in his power to operate sort of above politics, and that was what he tried to demonstrate and what he’s tried to make his brand henceforth,” one Albany insider told Politicker. “He was trying to show that he was not engaged in day-to-day politics. He was sort of this knight riding into Albany on top of all this dysfunction. He was going to fix everything and, therefore, there was no room to be seen as a political actor. He was sort of a fixer.”

Though he has traveled thousands of miles within New York’s borders, Mr. Cuomo’s brief appearance at the DNC was one of only two times he has left the state since his election as governor. His only other such foray was to Puerto Rico to attend the SOMOS conference, which, despite its foreign locale, is an advocacy group that works on behalf of Hispanic New Yorkers.

While he has kept his distance from the national party, he has been more eager to lend a hand in local races. According to Congressman Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Gov. Cuomo has provided instrumental support for House candidates in New York, which naturally has an impact on the presidential race.

“Gov. Cuomo has been very engaged in working with us to help our House Democratic candidates,” Mr. Israel said. “The contrast between Obama-Cuomo and Romney-Ryan will be a big advantage for us in November, and New York voters will be well aware of that contrast by election day.”

Though this New York-centric strategy may have led to tension between the governor and national Democrats, it has paid off in many ways here at home. During his first 21 months in office, Mr. Cuomo passed pension reform popular among conservatives and tax reform that earned points with liberals, presided over two on-time budgets, legalized same-sex marriage and earned respect from many Empire State Republicans. Siena Research Institute regularly surveys New York voters on the governor’s performance. The group’s most recent poll on Mr. Cuomo, which was conducted in mid-July, found that 69 percent of voters in the state have a favorable impression of the governor, compared with just 22 percent who have an unfavorable opinion of him. The same poll found that the majority of New Yorkers, 54 percent, see Mr. Cuomo as a “moderate,” compared with 27 percent who view him as a “liberal” and 10 percent who would describe him as “conservative.”

Mr. Cuomo has been coy about his intentions so far, dismissing any discussion of a potential White House bid without ever explicitly denying presidential ambitions. When we asked the governor’s office to comment on the widespread presidential speculation, Matthew Wing, a press aide for Mr. Cuomo, emphasized the governor’s focus on New York.

“As we have stated countless times, the governor is focused on doing his job and working for the people of New York—that’s the job he was elected to do, and the results speak for themselves,” Mr. Wing said.

Indeed they do. Should the governor decide to run for higher office, his impressive achievements in New York will no doubt form the basis of his candidacy. Still, some observers question the wisdom of expending so much energy on a state that is always staunchly blue in presidential elections anyway.

“If this is a campaign for president,” said the Albany insider, “it is a brilliant one from a New York standpoint, but let’s be honest, how important is New York?”

Additionally, Mr. O’Malley isn’t the only potential rival Mr. Cuomo may encounter if he mounts a bid for the White House—nor is he the only possible opponent who has worked hard at building bridges to the national Democratic Party. Secretary of State (and former New York senator) Hillary Clinton is another widely touted potential presidential hopeful. Multiple sources we spoke with said Mr. Cuomo’s somewhat strained relationship with national Democrats has increased Ms. Clinton’s appeal among influential political figures and donors in New York and beyond.

“If Hillary Clinton decides to run, whenever she decides to run, he will have no New York Democrat support,” the national operative we talked to declared of Mr. Cuomo. “He will have no national Democratic support. None. Zero. There is nothing there.”

A Democratic congressional operative agreed with this assessment, noting, “I think the perception in Washington is that, if Hillary wants to go, it’s kind of a done deal.”

Part of Mr. Cuomo’s careful branding strategy has involved cultivating a distanced and, at times, contentious relationship with the Albany press corps. The governor generally favors broadcast interviews with two Albany radio hosts—Susan Arbetter and New York Post columnist Fred Dicker, who has a notoriously cozy relationship with Mr. Cuomo and is working on an authorized biography of the governor.

Update (3:31 p.m.): This story originally said the governor holds "official press briefings relatively rarely." The governor's office responded by noting the governor has attended over fifty public events around the state in the past six months.

However, there have been recent signs that Mr. Cuomo is increasingly opening up and engaging with the local media. Late last month, the governor and his aides took reporters on a trip to the Adirondacks, where they spent over three hours canoeing, fishing and holding extensive off-the-record fireside chats. In another recent off-the-record event, Mr. Cuomo held a reception at the Governor’s Mansion in Albany, where he spent about two hours speaking with local journalists.

But although he has increased his engagement with the Albany press corps, the governor has still largely eschewed the national press and has avoided appearances on the Sunday talk shows and the cable news circuit. For now, it seems doubtful his glasnost will extend to national media and political issues. One reporter who has covered the state capitol told Politicker it’s clear the governor has relinquished some of the tight control over his narrative, but said it is not clear whether this new approach will last.

“The governor and his communications staff seemed to have a really difficult relationship with the press for his first year and a half in office, but recently his staff have seemed more open and relaxed,” the reporter said. “There seems to be slightly less paranoia on both sides. Of course, that can change in an instant.”

Additional reporting by Colin Campbell.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story written prior to the presidential debates appeared in this week's print edition of the New York Observer.

Eric Fehrnstrom talking to reporters after tonight's debate.

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Talking to reporters in "spin alley" after tonight's debate, Mitt Romney's senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom conceded President Barack Obama was "more spirited" than he was in the first go-around. However, Mr. Fehrnstrom said the Romney campaign is still "confident" its candidate will win.

"I don't think changing your style or changing your tone can change the facts of your record," Mr. Fehrnstrom said. "We still have 23 million Americans struggling for work, 16 trillion in debt, 47 million Americans living on food stamps, one in six Americans living in poverty. No amount of histrionics on the president's part can change those bad facts."

Mr. Fehrnstrom repeatedly cited those same statistics as evidence President Obama's record is "indefensible."

"Governor Romney had a strong debate tonight. There were sharp differences on the budget, on taxes, on energy development. The president was more spirited, but he was defending the indefensible. He was defending a record where we have 23 million Americans who are struggling for work, we have 47 million Americans on food stamps, one in six Americans living in poverty," said Mr. Fehrnstrom. "There is a big choice in this election and the choice is, under President Obama, we'll get four years--another four years like the last four years and with Governor Romney, we'll get a real recovery with more jobs and rising incomes for everyone."

Based on this juxtaposition, Mr. Fehrnstrom said he believes that voters will ultimately choose Mr. Romney.

"I think that's ultimately what people are going to be deciding when they go to vote," Mr. Fehrnstrom explained. "They'll be asking themselves the question, 'Do I want another four years like the last four years?' On that basis, Mitt Romney's going to win the election. We're confident."

At times during tonight's debate, Mr. Romney seemed to be fazed by the president's attacks. Politico's Maggie Haberman asked Mr. Fehrnstrom whether he thought the president had indeed gotten "under Romney's skin."

"I think they were both more passionate than they were in the first debate, but again, changing your style or changing your tone as the president did doesn't change the facts of his record," Mr. Fehrnstrom said, repeating some of the statistics he had rattled off previously. "These are bad facts and no amount of histrionics by the president can cover them up."

In addition to sparring with the president, Mr. Romney also repeatedly clashed with the moderator, CNN's Candy Crowley. Politicker asked Mr. Fehrnstrom what he thought of her performance.

"You know, I think the moderator, she was fine," said Mr. Fehrnstrom. "You know, I don't have any complaints about the referee, the umpire. It's hard to umpire these debates."

Mitt Romney (Photo: Getty)

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- At many points in tonight's presidential debate, Mitt Romney seemed to be expending more energy sparring with the moderator, CNN's Candy Crowley, than with President Barack Obama. The multiple moments where Mr. Romney argued with Ms. Crowley drew audible reactions in the audience and among the reporters in the media filing room. Mr. Romney's squabbles with Ms. Crowley also made him seem shaken by the president's attacks after a debate in which Mr. Romney was widely seen as the victor and the president was criticized as insufficiently aggressive.

Mr. Romney first found himself arguing with Ms. Crowley after he disputed the Obama campaign's contention that he would have allowed the auto industry to go bankrupt.

"He keeps saying, you want to take Detroit bankrupt," Mr. Romney said of his opponent. "Well, the president took Detroit bankrupt."

President Obama responded by saying, "What Governor Romney said just isn't true."

"He wanted to take them into bankruptcy without providing them any way to stay open," said the president. "And we would have lost a million jobs."

After President Obama's remarks, Ms. Crowley attempted to ask him the next question. Mr. Romney interrupted her asking to respond to "that Detroit answer."

Ms. Crowley stopped Mr. Romney assuring him "you certainly will have lots of time here coming up."

That was the first of many such exchanges. The next came after President Obama labeled his energy policies "not an energy strategy for the future. Ms. Crowley attempted to move on to a new topic, but Mr. Romney implored her to let him continue on energy.

"He actually got the first question. So I get the last question--last answer," Mr. Romney said.

"In the follow up, it doesn't quite work like that," Ms. Crowley countered.

During these exchanges, President Obama adopted an air of amusement, adding to the impression his rival was going off the rails. At one point, Mr. Romney attempted to return to a previous topic when a questioner in the town hall-style event asked him, "What is the biggest difference between you and George W. Bush."

As Mr. Romney tried to address the previous question saying, "I think I was supposed to get that last answer."

"I don't think so, Candy," Mr. Obama said.

"Go ahead and use this two minutes any way you'd like to," Ms. Crowley said to Mr. Romney.

Though Ms. Crowley also cut Mr. Obama short at several points in the evening, he avoided getting into the kind of lengthy back-and-forths with her that Mr. Romney often became mired in. These exchanges left Mr. Romney seemingly stammering and appearing genuinely hobbled by the president's verbal jabs. President Obama certainly survived the debate without the impression he lacked energy in the face of Mr. Romney that cost him in the polls after the first debate. Indeed, Mr. Romney's multiple appeals to Ms. Crowley may have helped the president score a debate win that could help him get back on top in the final moments of this presidential race.

Robert Gibbs (Photo: Wikipedia)

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- The Obama administration has been criticized for offering evolving, confusing explanations for the cause of last month's attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. However, current senior Obama campaign advisor and former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs thinks his successor in the press office handled the situation well. 

Politicker spotted Mr. Gibbs walking through the press filing room at tonight's presidential debate. We asked him for his take on White House Press Secretary Jay Carney's handling of the Libya attack.

"I think the press secretary's handled it well because he's told people what we know when we knew it," Mr. Gibbs said.

We wanted to ask Mr. Gibbs more about his thoughts on the White House's public statements after the incident, but he walked behind a curtain and an aide told the reporters who were accompanying him that we weren't permitted to follow.

"Guys, you can't come back here," she said.