Political pundits are putting U.S. President Barack Obama slightly ahead of Republican challenger Mitt Romney after the two faced off on Tuesday in the second U.S. presidential debate.

According to a CNN poll, the winner of the second of three debates was Obama. It found that 46 per cent of voters believe Obama took this one by a slight margin.

“I think was what we can safely say is that the president did well enough to blunt Romney’s momentum, and if you can blunt the momentum, that puts him in a better position to win,” CNN political analyst David Gurgen said.

CNN’s Roland Martin said body language was a very big deal.

“Mitt Romney turned his back to the audience, and was trying to get the president, and the president pretty much looked at him, brushed his off and walked away from him and kept on engaging the person who asked the question. That shows a difference in tactic in terms of what you’re come here to do,” Roland said.

Once again, Romney had social media spinning during Tuesday’s debate.

When responding to the question about women’s equality in the workplace, as he described the hiring process in his cabinet as governor, Romney, said: “I went to a number of women’s groups and said ‘Can you help us find folks?’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.”

This set off a storm of tweets with the trending hashtag, #bindersfullofwomen.

One Twitter post said: “Ann Romney is rifling through the house trying to find Mitt’s little black binders full of women while cursing under her breath.”

Another said: “Who knew that Romney was such a ladies man? It’s the Rom and the Fonz. Two peas in a pod.”

There were just over seven-million tweets during this 90-minute debate.