First brush at the foreign policy debate winners

October 22, 2012 by Daniel Burton

First off, I don’t think many people watched the debate. The Bears were playing the Lions, and the Cards were playing the Giants. If Twitter, Facebook, and my Better Half were any indication, foreign policy is just too boring for most Americans.

But…I like foreign policy. A lot. Here’s my take:

The commentators and spin-doctors are going to come up with some way for Obama to win this debate like “on points” or something like that, but let’s be honest: he had to make headway for this debate to matter, and he made no headway. He looked miffed, angry, and irritated most of the time, and he spent the duration making excuses, debating himself, and attacking Mitt Romney, not laying out a plan for the future. It’s clear, if nothing else, that he dislikes Mitt Romney.

That won’t get you reelected, though.

On the other hand, while Mitt Romney did nothing to set off the kind of fireworks that he did in the first debate, he did what he needed to do, and that was to prove that he has a sufficient grasp of the issues that undecided voters–who ARE voting on the economy–can trust him on foreign policy, too. He reiterated that he has a plan for the future, that he has experience in the real economy creating jobs, and that a strong economy will create a strong America.