OTTUMWA, IOWA -- Governor Mitt Romney and President Obama squared off in their second of three debates Tuesday evening.

The town hall-style debate meant a different atmosphere than the first debate October 3. The biggest topics focused on Libya and equal employment  for women.

Even with a stronger performance from the president, local Republicans feel that last evening was another victory for the governor.

"Good specifics for the future," said Trudy Caviness, Chair of the Wapello County Republicans. "I think several questions were not answered on both sides. But I think that some of the ones that are the most important to people, you take the Libyan situation and that got so muddy and the administration for 14 days kept saying it was a movie trailer. One of the most important things the President does is protect the American people and so we're not straight with that. So if you're not going to come clean with what is going on, where do you believe things?"

On the other side of the spectrum, Democrats are saying that this was one of the best performances by President Obama.

"Well there hasn't been enough time to see if it has an impact in the presidential polls, suspect it will; and you know when we saw a decline in the President's numbers, we also saw a lot of decline in the senate campaigns and house campaigns, for Democrats, so hopefully as he comes up they will come up as well," said Democrat Steve Siegel.

The final presidential debate will take place on October 22.