Word Clouds From the 2nd Presidential Debate

After an exciting debate Tuesday night, our readers shared their thoughts. As with the past two debates— the first presidential and the vice presidential battles— we asked our readers on Facebook to give their one-word takes on the performances of the two candidates.

We then compiled the one-word reactions into word clouds, in which words that were mentioned more often appear larger. The result offers a quick look at what our audience thought of Romney’s and Obama’s efforts.

Some 1,632 of you gave your opinion on Romney. Of the biggest six words only one was positive: “presidential.” The other five, “liar,” “bully,” “desperate,” “arrogant,” and “rude,” show that our readers saw Romney as pushy, perhaps due to the perception that he interrupted the moderator more often than President Obama.

Barack Obama’s word cloud was compiled from 1,941 responses. While the word “liar” certainly makes an appearance here, most of the big words are positive. “Presidential” looms large, with words like “awesome,” “commanding,” and “strong” coming in big numbers.

Did you miss your chance to take part on Facebook? Try your hand at it in the comments and answer this question: What’s one word that sums up Mitt Romney’s performance, and one word that sums up Barack Obama’s?