We head into the second presidential debate with a good deal of tension between the candidates and the moderator, CNN’s Candy Crowley, who has said she plans to bend the rules Tuesday night.

The debate, which is a town hall format, is set up to have audience members ask questions of the candidates. But in recent weeks, Crowley said candidates could expect follow-up questions from her as well. On Sunday, Time Magazine revealed that both the Obama and Romney campaigns had complained to the Commission on Presidential Debates about the way Crowley was describing her role.

The Commission, which runs the debates and was established by the Republican and Democratic parties, has been criticized this election for being unduly influenced by the two parties. As a result, two sponsors of the debates pulled their support before the first one even took place.

—Elizabeth Flock

CNN's Candy Crowley is the first female moderator of a presidential election debate in 20 years.

She opened the debate with comments that left unclear whether she would indeed be asking follow up questions of the candidates. "You brought great questions... and we will help each other,” she told the assembled audience at Hofstra. “I will see you on the other end of the hour and a half."

—Elizabeth Flock

Romney had said it would "be easy" for him to promise government money to help pay for school, but he wouldn't do that

Obama talking manufacturing jobs, auto bailout, tax code - kitchen sink approach to "answering" first question

Ah, this kid will get an energy job when he graduates. Biofuel major, no doubt. #Debate 2012

Romney says he believes in "renewables" - important to note he says he supports cutting tax breaks for wind and solar production.

During the primaries, Newt Gingrich campaigned on promises of $2.50/gal for gas - but analysts say gov has a hard time impacting gas prices

My two teenagers bickers better than this.

Graduating to a Good Job

Earlier this year, an Associated Press investigation analyzed labor department data and found that 53.6 percent of bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25—or 1.5 million of them—last year either had no jobs or were underemployed. That means that those who did have jobs found those jobs insufficient, for example because the jobs were part-time or because the jobs did not use the workers' full skill sets.

Romney often claims that half of all college graduates can't find a job, but the truth is that this cohort includes those underemployed people.

In terms of when this situation will improve, one expert offers a grim prediction.

"I do think that at some point, unemployment for young college grads would come back to normal levels, but it will largely be at low compensation levels," says Gad Levanon, director of macroeconomic research at The Conference Board, in an email.

—Danielle Kurtzleben

What's the right amount of pipeline? I'll bet some oil CEOs would like to see enough to wrap around the earth ... TWICE. #Debate2012

Obama reference to Romney ending wind jobs in Iowa is related to his position on cutting wind tax subsidies

On Obama's Jobs Figure

Obama said he has created 5 million new jobs over the last 30 months, while Romney said 23 million Americans are struggling to find work. Here are a few basic facts about the job market.

Unemployment was increasing fast when Obama took office in January 2009. Employment levels hit a bottom in February 2010 and started to improve gradually. If you compare today's employment levels to January 2009, total employment is still 61,000 below where it was then. If you compare it to the low point of February 2010, the economy has created about 4.3 million new jobs since then. So Obama is close but he's rounding up too much by claiming the economy has created 5 million new jobs over the last 30 months. The more accurate number is 4.3 million.

—Rick Newman

Romney's claim he won't reduce taxes paid by wealthiest Americans flies in the face of GOP primary, when in debates he promised just that

A tool that tracks real-time sentiment on Twitter shows Obama began tracking more positively than Romney in the online conversation as soon as the Republican nominee began interrupting moderator Candy Crowley. The total volume of tweets, however, so far favor Romney.

—Elizabeth Flock

Detroit Bailouts

Romney used odd language when he said that Obama "took General Motors bankrupt." GM and Chrysler were clearly headed for bankruptcy regardless of what the Bush administration, and then the Obama administration, did. The question at the time was whether the government should provide financing to help them survive bankruptcy and emerge as reorganized companies, or let them go it alone, hoping to find private financing.

In an ordinary market, private financing might have emerged, but in the panicky economy at the time, with banks and other lenders calling in loans rather than offering more, it is very unlikely that private financing would have emerged. Without private financing to help the two automakers reorganize in bankruptcy, the only other option would have been liquidation.

There are a lot of different figures about how many lost jobs that would have entailed, but it is sufficient to say it would have been a lot. These are two huge companies—especially GM—and there are hundreds of suppliers and other contractors that depend on them for business. Overall, hundreds of companies would have gone belly up, in addition to thousands of dealerships in communities everywhere.

—Rick Newman

#Romney: "Of course the numbers will add up." Sure, that always happens in Washington. #Debate2012

Romney apparently had to look under the rug in Massachusetts to find women for his cabinet

President Obama asserted that Gov. Romney wants to spend $2 trillion more on defense than the military is asking for. The fact of the matter is that President Obama has consistently targeted defense spending since his first budget, prioritizing domestic spending instead. The pressure from the White House was so strong that then-Secretary of Defense Gates said of the pressure on DoD, "that's math, not strategy."

Jamie M. Fly
Executive Director
Foreign Policy Initiative

Both of these guys looking petty tonight, complaining about rules and a few seconds here and there. #Debate2012