HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) – An aggressive President Barack Obama accused challenger Mitt Romney of favoring a “one-point plan” to help the rich in America and playing politics with the deadly terrorist attack in Libya in a Tuesday night debate crackling with energy and emotion just three weeks before the election.

Romney pushed back hard, saying the middle class “has been crushed over the last four years” and that 23 million Americans are still struggling to find work. He said the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya was part of an unraveling of the administration’s foreign policy.

The president was feistier from the outset than he had been in their initial encounter two weeks ago, when he turned in a listless performance that sent shudders through his supporters and helped fuel a rise by Romney in opinion polls nationally and in some battleground states.