As expected in the final presidential debate, Mitt Romney was in way over his head, as President Obama used his experience as Commander in Chief to lay waste to his Republican challenger.
The first segment was on the changing Middle East, and the first question was on Libya. Romney gave a rambling answer that blamed Obama for the problems in the Middle East. Romney said we need a comprehensive strategy against extremism, but he didn’t say what that strategy would be. Obama played Commander in Chief card, and talked about keeping America safe for four years and ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama then turned to Libya, and highlighted his successes in the Middle East, and said Romney has been all over the map. Romney then told the president who got Bin Laden that he was going to go after the bad guys. (Romney was already in way over his head here.) Romney kept hammering North Mali being taken over by al-Qaeda, and Obama nailed Romney for finally recognizing al-Qaeda is big threat and called Romney’s foreign policy straight out of the 1980s. Obama rolled over him, and pointed out that Romney has been wrong on every foreign policy opinion that he has offered.
The president said the US needs strong steady leadership not reckless leadership in the Middle East. Romney claimed that everything he said about Russia and all of other foreign policy statements was inaccurate. Romney claimed Obama was wrong about his Russia comment, but then he promised to get tough on Putin.
Obama spent the first twenty minutes of the debate hammering away on Romney. The Republican nominee bumbled across the Middle East. Whether the question concerned Iraq, Libya, or Syria, Romney was full of bluster and babble. Romney found a brief escape by retreating into jabbering on about the economy while promising a strong military, and not to cut the budget. The debate then got way off course as both candidates started talking about domestic policy.
With Romney badly losing the debate, the Republican broke out all of the far right talking points about Obama being weak. Romney claimed that Obama wanted to sit down with China, N. Korea, Iran, and that the president apologized for America. Obama fired back by calling out Romney’s lie about the apology tour as not true. He then knocked down Romney’s tough talk on Iran by bringing up his investment with a Chinese oil company that was doing business with Iran.
Romney responded by going to back to the apology tour. Obama swung back by pointing out that as a candidate, when he visited foreign nations, he didn’t talk to donors and hold fundraisers. Obama detailed all of his travels to Israel and the region. Romney’s only response was that things are really really bad in the world, and it is all Obama’s fault. Obama responded by breaking down all of Romney’s bad calls and flip-flops on foreign policy.
The questioning turned to Afghanistan, and Obama got to talk about his record with al-Qaeda and transitioned to now being the time for America to do nation building at home. Mitt Romney got a question about Pakistan, and he didn’t really seem to have anything to say. Romney said that he didn’t blame Obama for the strained Pakistan relationship, but said that we can’t walk away from Pakistan. Romney was asked about the drone strikes, and again all he had to say was that the president was right to use that technology. Romney seemed to have run out of debate prep talking points, and was now agreeing with Obama, but claiming that world has gone to hell thanks to Obama.
Obama was asked about our biggest threat to national security, and he said terrorist networks. The topic also shifted to China, and Obama laid out everything he has done to crack down on China. Romney called America’s greatest national security threat a nuclear Iran. Romney then stepped into the danger zone by talking about China, and blamed Obama for looking weak to China. Romney blamed China for outsourcing, and repeated his disastrous plan to label them a currency manipulator. Bob Schieffer woke up from his nap and asked Romney if a plan to label China a currency manipulator would start a trade war? Romney, who invested in a Chinese company that stole intellectual property, criticized China for stealing intellectual property.
Obama opened up a can of whoop ass on Romney, and called out his investment in companies that outsource jobs to China. Obama then hammered Romney’s corporate tax plan change that would create 800,000 jobs overseas. Obama pointed out that US exports to China have doubled since he came into office, and he pointed out the country now has its best currency situation since 1993. Romney tried to clean up his previous statements about auto bailout and lied by claiming that he would do nothing to hurt the auto industry. (This was a blatant appeal to Ohio voters.) Obama called out Romney for lying, and airbrushing history. Romney was left repeating his litany of bad economic numbers. Romney was in full blown retreat, and used the only card he really has left to play in this election.
In their closing statements, Obama made his case for a second term. Romney’s closing argument was to attack Obama, and offer vague promises of prosperity.
Obama was comfortable in this debate, and he owned Romney. The Republican nominee kept trying to change the subject to domestic policy, but when he did he danced on landmines. At times, Romney was tossing around a word salad that didn’t really mean anything. Romney looked weak in this debate, and he was left repeating much of what he already said in the first two debates. Mitt Romney looked totally lost on foreign policy. Obama followed up his strong performance in the second debate, with an equally strong showing in third debate.
Obama takes the debates by winning two out of three.





Rocky in Texas said...
Oct. 22nd, 2012 at 10:46 pm
Now with 2 weeks to go…
Let’s see those dam Tax Returns, Mitt!!
Release the returns so we can decide!
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Bradley Danyluk
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 12:24 am
Your vote is based on a tax document? You should have made your mind up well before today.. and you should be concerned with way more important presidential issues than his tax return.
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JeffreyG
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 2:17 am
Mitt releasing his tax returns would by the final nail in his coffin..lol! We will NEVER see them even after he looses.
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Alan Koeppen
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 8:32 am
Why not? There are idiots out there who are STILL calling for Obama’s birth certificate… That he has already released… And they still don’t recognize. Probably just because he’s black, a Democrat, or a “socialist, Muslim pig bent on destroying American values.” Yup, end of the world is coming all because Obama.
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Elle B.
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 1:02 am
Romney, Release the returns so we will have even more evidence that proves you are unfit to lead the country.
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Shiva (Moderator)
Oct. 22nd, 2012 at 10:55 pm
Do we notice Romney almost exclusively left Libya out of the conversation?
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calma60
Oct. 22nd, 2012 at 11:11 pm
Yes! It will show his investments in China. It will show his profits from the auto bailout. We need to get this rude man out of politics.
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Anne
Oct. 22nd, 2012 at 11:23 pm
The fact that he’s such a shape-shifter is a referendum on his character, which we know is shady. It was a sickening spectacle to see his usual lying and blustering, on top of not being able to answer a lot of the questions. At certain points, he even contradicted himself.
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brian H
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 10:04 am
Sounds like you’re describing Obama to a T…
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Anne
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 10:43 am
You are typical of Romney supporters who deflect to the president by falsely attributing Romney’s negative qualities to him because you simply cannot defend Romney’s constant flip-flops and lies. Like Rachel Maddow said, it’s a matter of character and these flip-flops and lies should be disqualifying. I will add that Romney’s enormous character flaws should disqualify him from even running a dog kennel.
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brian H
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 11:19 am
One thing we should be able to agree on is that if you’re far left like the sponsor of this blog and Maddow and yourself, then you’re certainly going to “see” a different debate than a social conservative would see. I won’t argue since I won’t change your view and you certainly won’t change mine. I will only make the observation that yes it is no surprise Rachael Maddow interpreted the way she did. MSNBC has always been a pro-Obama organization. Just look at Chris Matthews’ explosive response to the first debate.
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terry
Oct. 22nd, 2012 at 11:29 pm
I think the next time there’s a debate there they should use a better sound sytem, this one had an echo on it all the way through, it seemed every time the president spoke there was this horrible echo which seemed to becoming from his right
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DontHatetheGame
Oct. 22nd, 2012 at 11:44 pm
Did you watch the post debate? Romney’s grandson (I think) made a bee line to get to Obama to shake his hand so someone picks him up and then he’s still trying to get to him and then they pass him around and then Romney gets him for about 10 seconds and the kid is STIll trying to get to Obama and Obama knows whats going on and it looks like he’s about to hold his arms out for him and then some unseen arms snatches the kid away and off the stage!! It was priceless and goes along with what you’ve said about kids and Obama… THEY LOVE HIM!! Even Mitts own grandson!!! LOL, this was a great debate… CBS poll — 30 pts OBAMA!!!
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Researchisthegame
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 1:07 am
I thought this was interesting so I just turned on the dvr, put the debate on….took the time to fast forward to the end…, it was not what happened at all. He shook his hand more than once and held the shake followed up by bending over and chatting with him for about 30 secs. Don’t add falsehoods to the Obama team that’s the Romney game.
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Don'tHateTheGame
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 7:52 am
Either you are suffering from Romnesia or your DVR cut off – it is exactly what happened.
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Nefer
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 8:19 am
Yes, the handshaking happened. The child being held and reaching for Obama also happened, after the handshaking. I remember noticing and thinking it was cute, but probably a bit embarrassing for the Romneys.
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Lori
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 11:40 am
I was hoping that the grandson would start crying while Romney was holding him & that President Obama would take him & the crying would stop.
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galactusx
Oct. 22nd, 2012 at 11:45 pm
No one respects a man that only has a word salad. President Obama is a genius and a Samurai!
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Andrew Rei
Oct. 22nd, 2012 at 11:46 pm
The debate tonight showed us two things: 1, that we were correct in voting Barack Obama as President in 2008 and, 2, we should re-elect him as President.
The President nailed Mittens with several uppercuts that hurt Mittens badly, plus the zingers :)
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Lisa
Oct. 22nd, 2012 at 11:53 pm
“Bob Schieffer woke up from his nap….”. Classic! Four more years.
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Conservative Heart
Oct. 22nd, 2012 at 11:54 pm
Whatever!
Romney has binders full of military experience!
He’s clearly horses and bayonets ahead of Obama when it comes to world domination by the Supreme US Forces.
Once again, Romney scores a knock out punch and clearly sank Obama’s battleship…where you know, Obama’s campaign was hoping to hide some planes full of bad economy.
Also, Romney believes Michigan has trees just the right height.
Romney is the clear winner tonight!!
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sdc74
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 12:23 am
Is this satire? Don’t was in easy over his head once again. The President did a great job in revealing Twitt’s lies for what they were. Wake up ..
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Reynardine
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 1:48 am
Poe!
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Rho
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Why do we keep seeing the same commentary from you? If I wanted to see reruns, I’d watch TV Land.
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KarenT
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 12:20 am
Pre-debate poll on foreign policy from uncommitted voters had Obama at 58%. Post-debate 71%. Romney went from 46% to 49%
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Jim H.
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 1:14 am
How much of Romney’s bump came from people being polled who didn’t realize that many of Romney’s policies were already in place by Obama?
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Candice
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 12:32 am
Did anyone else notice how much Romney was sweating? It was the Kennedy/Nixon debate all over tonight.
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UncaJoe
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 12:36 am
Mitt agreed with the President so much tonight it almost sounded like an endorsement.
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Jo Hargis
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 1:06 am
Hah. Van Jones said on CNN after the debate that if the debate had lasted another 30 minutes, Romney would have endorsed Obama for president.
Bwahaha.
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Linda123
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 12:39 am
Rocky-Mitt will NEVER release those 10 years of tax returns. Because, I am willing to bet, in at least 2 of them, he paid NO TAXES at all. Which would lump him in with those 47 percenters.
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Paula ND
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 9:39 am
Or, his tax returns will show that his residence he used to file them was California and that would prove voter fraud when he voted in Massachusetts. I think that is the real reason people would like to see his tax returns. Or, he took advantage of amnesty when putting money in a Swiss bank. That would show up on his taxes also.
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Carol Y
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 12:53 am
I noticed that Romney was repeating the President’s with his errerrerr between words. Obama was strong and matter-of-fact on World Policies. I do not think Romney is Presidental material and I am sick of hearing about how great was in Mass. Why did he have only 1 term?
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joseph
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 1:11 am
Just stop people. Bow to our aristocratic republican overlords and let them rule your fellow american sheeple as they see fit. We should all go to walmart to celebrate the ir greatness and wealth, by buying more stuff that they sell from overseas vendors that they outsourced our jobs to. /sarcasm off. Mitt romney and his cronies are trying to loot and destroy our country for their own profits. We have to get these guys out of positions of power
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Michael B.
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 1:15 am
When someone is running for the position of commander in chief, one should know basic geography as a point of strategy. Romney didn’t even know the Iran has TWO seas abutting the country. Iran doesn’t need Syria to ship out goods. Ann Coulter called Obama a retard today and her candidate can’t read a map.
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Deb J
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 3:06 am
First off : I have a feeling that Ann will be eating her words in a few weeks. Good thing President Obama is thick skinned. He did a great debate against Mitt who knows so little about foreign policy Obama had his head spinning. He was looking at the President as if he was going to cry..I noticed how he would always say when I become President..Have a feeling he will also be eating his words..lol what an ass he is..
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Eileen
Oct. 24th, 2012 at 7:14 am
Why does Romney keep inching up?
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