Voters With Questions at Debate Still Have Them

“My quandary is I’m still an undecided voter,” said Kerry Ladka, one of the 11 “persuadables” who questioned President Obama and Mitt Romney at their town hall-style debate on Tuesday in Hempstead, N.Y.

He and two others shared their reactions to the candidates on Wednesday, with an evenhanded approach remarkable in an election cycle better known for bitter attack ads and blistering partisanship.

Identifying himself as “a social liberal and a business conservative,” Mr. Ladka, 61, said: “I love the president. I love his health care plan. But at the same time I believe Governor Romney is better from a business point of view.”

Mr. Ladka’s question, about the attack that killed four Americans last month in Benghazi, Libya, spurred one of the most replayed exchanges of the evening. Mr. Romney charged that the president had failed at leadership by allowing his United Nations ambassador and others to claim for days that the attack had arisen from a demonstration.

“It was a terrorist attack, and it took a long time for that to be told to the American people,” Mr. Romney said.

“I think Mr. Romney made a good point,” Mr. Ladka said. “They did let a little bit too much time pass before acknowledging it was an act of terrorism.”

Mr. Ladka, a sales representative, said he did not believe Mr. Romney would have acted differently as commander in chief. And he acknowledged that American presidents must be precise when stating facts about volatile foreign events.

On television, Mr. Obama did not answer Mr. Ladka’s exact question, about who denied requests for extra security before the American ambassador and three other were killed, but after the debate the president spoke to him directly, Mr. Ladka said.

“The president came over to me and said naming a person in the State Department would put them and their family at risk, which I perfectly understand,” he said. “He assured me he would bring the people responsible for that murder to justice. The way he looked me in the eye, I felt he really meant what he said.”

Mary Follano, who asked Mr. Romney if he would preserve tax deductions for mortgage interest and other breaks “important for the middle class,” also did not resolve her indecision.

Mr. Romney has pledged to pay for sweeping tax cuts by closing loopholes. At the debate, he suggested giving middle-income Americans a “bucket” of deductions worth a fixed amount. “I will not under any circumstances increase taxes on the middle class,” he said.

Mr. Obama called Mr. Romney’s proposal a “sketchy deal.”

“You have the governor saying, ‘Oh, yes, the numbers add up — I’ve been a businessman for years,’ ” Ms. Follano said. “You have the president saying they don’t add up.”

Ms. Follano, 54, a respiratory therapist with six grown children, some struggling with part-time jobs, said she agreed with Mr. Obama on raising taxes on incomes above $250,000. But she was sympathetic when Mr. Romney said raising taxes on high earners would hurt small-business owners, who create jobs.

“Normally I just go right in and vote Republican,” Ms. Follano said. If the election were today, she said, she might leave the line blank.

Phillip Tricolla, who works in construction, said he had entered the debate leaning toward Mr. Romney and exited the same way, but no firmer. Mr. Tricolla, 52, skeptically asked Mr. Obama why his energy secretary had said the government was not responsible for gas prices. He listened to the president reply that oil and gas drilling was the most extensive in years. But Mr. Tricolla agreed with Mr. Romney that the government should do more.

“He’s a good businessman,” he said of Mr. Romney. “He understands 2 and 2 makes 4. I think he gets it.”

He wondered if he was being too tough on the president. “Is four years enough to make a difference?” he asked, noting that the stock market was up and that housing was making a slow recovery.

“They’ve got you jumping from foot to foot, these guys,” he said. “He just made sense. No, the other guy just made sense. I said, ‘Somebody sweep me away.’ ”

That did not happen. He is still hoping it will in the next 20 days.