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Hey, O shows up this time

President Obama went for the jugular in last night’s presidential debate rematch with Mitt Romney, rolling out a barrage of attacks that he failed to unleash in their Oct. 3 brawl in Denver.

In tense and angry exchanges, the two clashed over the root of the country’s economic troubles. “What Governor Romney just said isn’t true,” Obama asserted early, in one of his first forceful shots.

Romney promoted a five-point plan to turn the economy around with some of the same crisp language that threw Obama back on his heels at their first meeting.

This time, though, Obama had a ready answer: “Governor Romney doesn’t have a five-point plan. He has a one-point plan.

“And that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules. That’s his philosophy in the private sector, that’s been his philosophy as governor, that’s been his philosophy as a presidential candidate.”

Romney fired back with a withering attack on Obama’s economic record — frequently cutting him off, jousting with the moderator, even venturing into Obama’s personal space in tense exchanges.

“This is a president who has not been able to do what he said he’d do,” said Romney, while continuing to pitch his across-the-board 20 percent income-tax cut. “I’m not looking to cut taxes for wealthy people. I am looking to cut taxes for middle-income people,” he said.

The candidates sometimes became so focused on their attacks that they even ignored the questioners.

Obama found an early chance to raise the issue of Romney’s personal-tax rate, pointing out that Romney “only has to pay 14 percent on his taxes when a lot of you are already paying much higher.”

He called Romney’s tax-and-spending plan a “sketchy deal” that “doesn’t add up.”

“We haven’t heard from the governor any specifics beyond Big Bird and eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood in terms of how he’s going to pay for that,” Obama said.

Romney responded with an array of stats on high unemployment and slow growth: “The unemployment rate was 7.8 percent when he took office. It’s 7.8 percent now . . . We have not made the progress we need to put people back to work.”

Romney also went after Obama on energy policy, saying that the president held up drilling permits because it would have killed some birds, and that production on government lands was down.

“That’s not true,” Obama interrupted.

“It’s absolutely true. You’ll get your chance in a moment, I’m still speaking,” said Romney.

Romney said he favored all kinds of energy, but said Obama’s policies were holding the country back.

“This has not been Mr. Oil or Mr. Gas or Mr. Coal,” Rommey said, saying when he visits coal plants, people grab his arm and say, “Please, save my job.”

One questioner asked Romney to distinguish himself from President George W. Bush, and Romney picked out several policy differences. “I’ll crack down on China. President Bush didn’t,” he said.

Obama, speaking directly to Romney, responded that the former Massachusetts governor invested in companies that were “pioneers” in outsourcing to China.

“Governor, you’re the last person that’s going to get tough on China,” Obama said.

Romney then brought up some of Obama’s own investments. “Mr. President have you looked at your pension?”

“I don’t look at my pension, it’s not as big as yours,” Obama responded.

When a questioner asked about the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, Obama said he was “ultimately responsible.”

Romney responded, “You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror? It was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you’re saying?

“I want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror,” said Romney.

Obama fired back, “Get the transcript,” at which point moderator, CNN’s Candy Crowley, backed up the president.

Obama headed into last night’s face-off under enormous pressure to make up ground he lost to Romney, the overwhelming winner of their first debate.

Ever since that debate, Romney has been surging in polls both nationally and in key swing states, giving his campaign new momentum.

A CBS instant poll of 500 undecided voters who watched the debate gave the edge to Obama — but not by all that much.

According to the poll, 37 percent of the undecided voters said Obama won, compared with 30 percent who gave the edge to Romney. And 33 percent said it was a tie.

In the battleground state of Ohio, a group of voters watching the debate in “The Jury Room,” a restaurant and bar in Columbus, agreed that Obama finally showed up in fighting form.

Jamarr Mays, 31, an information-technology worker, said the president was “nowhere near as lethargic as last time.”

Mays, who voted for Obama in 2008, said he was “disappointed” at the president’s first term in office, but might still vote for him on Nov. 6.

But Mays said he wanted to see more of the feisty Obama back in Washington: “He needs more time and more balls.”

“I like the energy,” said Jim Coleman, 47, a Republican businessman. “We’re getting passion. We’re getting facts. This is what a debate is supposed to be.”

“I like the performance better,” he said. “But I’m still not pulling the lever for [Obama].”

Tim Fulton, a Democrat who works in marketing, raved that Obama was “direct” and “advantageous.”

Additional reporting by S.A. Miller and Selim Algar