Trivial Pursuit Of Foreign Policy In Final Presidential Debate
This week marked the third and final debate among the two major party contenders for President.
I, for one, was disappointed to not hear any solid plans on how either candidate would address the invasion of Canadian music.
Be that as it may, I believe Barack Obama won the debate.
The President came into the debate looking for as many fights as a 2000 Al Gore stump speech. Mitt Romney played it safe, trying to be the “peace candidate” so as to avoid being seen as George W. Bush: The Sequel.
In various forms, the President accused Romney of lying and of saying anything to “close the deal” to get the job. He hammered Romney on the fact that he hasn’t been President and, as such, doesn’t have a lot of foreign policy experience.
Romney supporters should take comfort in knowing that if there’s one thing President Obama has taught us it’s that a guy can, indeed, get on-the-job-training as Commander-in-Chief. I seem to recall a certain half-term US Senator from Illinois who picked Joe Biden as VP to deflect criticism about his lack of foreign policy gravitas.
But Obama is right. Foreign policy is not Mitt Romney’s strong suit. Does it have to be? I’m not so sure. I think the Romney campaign just wanted to come out of that debate not looking like a blood-thirsty warmonger.
However, he did suffer some potential damage.
Romney said “Syria is Iran’s only ally in the Arab world. It’s their route to the sea.”
Now, as an American, it should not be expected that he know geography. No American does. It’s why Trivial Pursuit swapped out that anti-American “Geography” category with “Wild Card” back in the 1990s.
But while this geographical mistake could hurt Romney with eggheads, old school Trivial Pursuit enthusiasts, and Europeans who know that Iran has access to the Caspian Sea as well as the Persian Gulf, I don’t know if it will among average Americans.
I also don’t know if those average Americans will know that Syria does not border Iran. I think a lot of undecided US voters will think, “Why is that helpful iPhone female voice slaughtering people in the Middle East?”
Make no mistake, the spectre of George W. Bush loomed large in this debate. Romney didn’t want to give Obama any chance to hang that “Four more years of the Bush Administration” anchor around his neck like Obama did to McCain in 2008.
Luckily for Romney, the two men agree that they want to keep using unmanned drones to whack terrorists (and the occasional American citizen) in foreign lands. (THAT shouldn’t cultivate any anti-Americanism for future generations, right?)
But it wasn’t all rainbows and trophies for Obama. He seemed to over-act the “righteously indignant smarmy jackass” role. Sorta’ like Joe Biden without all the laughing and smiling.
The condescending tone he took when “explaining” that the military has aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines was just immature.
Also, he apparently was told not to look down at his notes while Romney was speaking (as he did during the first debate). But the result was an intense glare that was a tad creepy. Not that Romney’s perma-half-grin was superior. But I think I’d take awkward over malevolent in my national leader.
But the biggest shocker of the night was not about foreign policy at all.
President Obama was talking about the budget and looming cuts to defense if a deal cannot be hammered out when he said, “First of all, the sequester is not something that I proposed. It’s something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen.”
Wait! What?
Team Obama began walking that back immediately, saying the POTUS meant to say the cuts “SHOULD not happen.”
But the GOP says President Obama is using the fear of massive military spending cuts to force Republicans to go along with tax increases.
Will it work? Who knows.
One thing is certain, the real winner last night was moderator Bob Scheiffer, who was barely mentioned as having any influence on the discussion at all.
Way to go, Bob!
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