By Johnette Jernigan and Kathy Wray Coleman, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog
CLEVELAND,Ohio- President Obama won on two ends this week. The president out did Mitt Romney during Tuesday night's debate, polls and people said. And earlier that day he out did Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and the Republicans.
Obama gained bragging rights in Ohio for a win on Tuesday on his early voting lawsuit as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a decision affirmed by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday that upheld Federal District Judge Peter Economus' ruling to strike down an unconstitutional state law that precluded early voting the weekend before the November 6 election.
Opposition to that voter suppression federal lawsuit had become Husted's baby, and ultimately his loss.
Economus, in August, restored early voting three days before the November election by supporting the Obama campaign lawsuit and striking down the state law passed last year by the Republican controlled Ohio State Legislature that precluded it.
In his ruling, the federal district court judge out of Youngstown, Oh., an urban city between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, Pa., said that because the since defunct statute or state law gave privilege to military personnel to vote and not others, it is therefore unconstitutional.
And the rejection by the nation's high court to hear an appeal of the Sixth Circuit decision that supports Economus' ruling just made the Democrats even more enthusiastic at debate watch parties held later that Tuesday evening in Cleveland metropolitan areas for the second of three scheduled presidential debates.
"The president stood on his record and he won the debate,"said, Democratic state Rep. Nickie Antonio (D-13) during a debate watch party in Lakewood, Oh at the home of prominent Cleveland trial lawyer E. John Brzytwa and his wife Ellen, both lifelong Democrats whose seven-bedroom mini-mansion on Lake Erie overlooks downtown Cleveland.
About 40 Obama supporters, mostly White loyal Democrats, nibbled on cheese and crackers and drank fine wine at the community watch party as Obama and Romney sparred over their tax plans , domestic and foreign policy issues, and Libya.
Moderated by CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crawley, Obama did better the second time around, and he was aggressive when needed, political pundits said. (Editor's note: The third and final U.S. presidential debate is Monday at 9 pm Eastern Time at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fl).
The president said that Romney's proposal to cut taxes for the rich on the backs of middle class and poor Americans is merely a reflection of his disrespect for fair play and equal treatment for all Americans.
"We haven't heard anything from the governor beyond big bird," said the Democrat Obama of Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and the nominee for president for the Republican Party.
Rebecca Patton, president of the American Nurses Association, agreed, and said that the election is about either selecting Romney to further the agendas of rich Americans, or reelecting President Obama for the betterment of all Americans.
"It's about a candidate such as Mitt Romney who wants to continue to take care of people who are well off or a president whose first initiative when taking office was to sign the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 into law, said Patton, who was among a cadre of Cleveland area nurses that joined other Obama supporters at the debate watch party in Lakewood Tuesday night.
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