The Final Countdown (Debate #3)
Well, tonight was the final presidential debate, this one on foreign affairs. The President came out strong and on the offensive, while Romney seemed to not want to attack, and was mostly concerned with not making an unforced error.
I think both sides got their wish again tonight. Romney came through with a plausible presidential demeanor capable of handling foreign affairs. Obama appeared aggressive to the point of petulance tonight. He had the advantage going in to this debate. Even with all the national security briefings he's supposed to have missed, he's been sporadically attending them for four years, while Romney has been getting them for a few short weeks. So the president was, quite naturally, possessing of more in-depth knowledge on various situations. Perhaps the nature of the prior debates and the last few weeks made Obama feel that he had to go on the attack. To me, it seemed mildly less-than-Presidential. That's what your attack dogs are for. But Joe can't stop smirking, so that won't work.
Unfortunately, the old adage is that the only thing the prevent defense does is prevent you from winning applied to the governor tonight. Not being on the offense except about the economy isn't making you any big gains after tonight. If your internal polling shows that you're winning, then I hope the other adage about foreign policy debates not moving the needle holds true as well.
Now we go into the last two weeks, and getting folks out to the polls. I dearly hope that we are not looking at a scenario where Romney beats Obama on a moderately strong popular vote (say 52-48), but Obama ekes out a narrow electoral victory (272-266 or so). Or vice-versa. I think that would be bad on several levels. I hope that the eventual winner wins both the electoral and popular votes.
So Obama wins the night on poise and better overall knowledge of foreign affairs, but Romney was at least holding his own. Obama came off as too aggressive and less presidential than Romney, and Romney certainly had the better closing argument.
Get out and vote, and we'll see y'all on November 6th!
I think both sides got their wish again tonight. Romney came through with a plausible presidential demeanor capable of handling foreign affairs. Obama appeared aggressive to the point of petulance tonight. He had the advantage going in to this debate. Even with all the national security briefings he's supposed to have missed, he's been sporadically attending them for four years, while Romney has been getting them for a few short weeks. So the president was, quite naturally, possessing of more in-depth knowledge on various situations. Perhaps the nature of the prior debates and the last few weeks made Obama feel that he had to go on the attack. To me, it seemed mildly less-than-Presidential. That's what your attack dogs are for. But Joe can't stop smirking, so that won't work.
Unfortunately, the old adage is that the only thing the prevent defense does is prevent you from winning applied to the governor tonight. Not being on the offense except about the economy isn't making you any big gains after tonight. If your internal polling shows that you're winning, then I hope the other adage about foreign policy debates not moving the needle holds true as well.
Now we go into the last two weeks, and getting folks out to the polls. I dearly hope that we are not looking at a scenario where Romney beats Obama on a moderately strong popular vote (say 52-48), but Obama ekes out a narrow electoral victory (272-266 or so). Or vice-versa. I think that would be bad on several levels. I hope that the eventual winner wins both the electoral and popular votes.
So Obama wins the night on poise and better overall knowledge of foreign affairs, but Romney was at least holding his own. Obama came off as too aggressive and less presidential than Romney, and Romney certainly had the better closing argument.
Get out and vote, and we'll see y'all on November 6th!