President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney sparred over topics such as equal pay for women and attempted to calm undecided voters' concerns over their qualifications for the job during the middle segment of Tuesday's presidential debate at Hofstra University.

The pressure was on Obama to up his aggressiveness after an abysmal first-debate performance left 71 percent of likely voters feeling like Romney came away the victor. For Romney, the town hall format's intimate setting gave him an opportunity to narrow the likability gap between himself and the president, and dispel perceptions that he cannot relate to the middle and working class.

As the two candidates fielded questions from a crowd of 82 undecided voters selected by the Gallup polling company, the topic of women's equality was brought up as Katherine Fenton asked the candidates how they would address the issue of unequal pay.

Obama got personal with the audience as he drew upon an anecdote of being raised by a single mother. He also mentioned how his grandmother rose to become the vice president of a local bank before hitting a glass ceiling.

"In every walk of life, we do not tolerate discrimination. That's been one of the hallmarks of my administration," Obama said.

The president championed the Lilly Ledbetter bill, which would promote fair pay for women, and zinged Romney for being ambiguous on his support for it.

Romney countered by talking about staffing his cabinet with women, touting how it had more females in senior leadership positions than any other state in America. He spoke of how women have lost 585,000 jobs over the last four years.

"What we can do to help young women and women of all ages is to have a strong economy," Romney said. "So strong, that employers that are looking to find good employees and bringing them into their workforce and adapting to a flexible work schedule that gives women opportunities that they would otherwise not be able to afford."

Obama said Romney supported the idea that employers should have the final say in whether women should have contraceptives covered in their health plan. Obama, who has had the bulk of the female demographic on his side during the campaign, took Romney to task for his opposition to Planned Parenthood.

The president added he wants women to have the "same fair deal as men."

"These are not just women's issues. These are family issues. These are economic issues," Obama said. "I've got two daughters and I want to make sure that they have the same opportunies that anybody's sons have."

Undecided voter Susan Katz, voicing concern over Romney being a George W. Bush retread, asked the former Massachusetts governor how his presidency would be different from Bush's.

Romney emphasized energy creation, toughness on China and trade expansion into Latin America as areas that set him apart from the previous Republican president.

"My priority is jobs. I know how to make it happen. President Bush had a different path for a very different time," Romney said.

Obama's rebuttal criticized Romney for his support of self-deportation and investing in companies that outsourced jobs to China.

"You're the last person who's going to get tough on China," he said.

Michael Jones, saying he is "not as optimistic" as he was in 2008, asked Obama what he has done to deserve his vote in 2012.

Obama replied by summarizing the campaign promises he has kept during his presidency, such as cutting taxes for middle class families and small businesses. He also shined his foreign policy credentials by talking about ending the Iraq war and concentration efforts on Al-Qaeda leadership that led to the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Romney alluded to Obama's inability to bring substantial immigration reform and cut the deficit.

"I can tell you that if you were to elect President Obama, you know what you're going to get," Romney said. "You're going to get a repeat of the last four years. We just can't afford four more years like the last four years."

The GOP candidate also brought up Obama's failure to cut unemployment down to 5.4 percent or bring reform to Medicare and Social Security. He mentioned 47 million people are on food stamps compared to the 32 million figure when Obama took office.

"The middle class is getting crushed under a president who has no idea on how to get the economy working again," Romney said.

A Gallup poll released hours before the second debate showed Romney leading the president 50 to 46 percent nationally among likely voters.

 

Reach Senior Staff Reporter Danny Lee here; follow him on Twitter here.