Five things to watch for when President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney debate foreign policy Monday night:
1. THE TIEBREAKER: Romney ran away with the first. Obama edged him in the second. Stakes are high for their third and final showdown. Does that mean a repeat of last week’s ornery tone? Or will the gravity of the issues — war, terrorism, world leadership — inspire more dignified discourse?
2. REMATCH ON LIBYA: It sparked one of the hottest exchanges of the second debate. And there’s more to it than when Obama called the consulate attack an “act of terror.” Expect to hear about failed security, intelligence lapses and the Obama administration’s shifting account of what happened in Libya. After Obama’s parry last week, Romney gets another try.
3. ROMNEY’S TEST: The former governor and businessman has limited foreign experience. He took hits for comments that ruffled British and Palestinian leaders last summer, and for hastening to criticize the administration’s response even as chaotic events were unfolding in Libya and Egypt. This debate is the prime moment for Romney to display the knowledge and judgment to lead on the world stage.
4. ON DEFENSE: Obama must defend four years of foreign policy. Expect Romney to accuse the president of weakening America’s world leadership by mishandling Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the pullout from Afghanistan, the Syrian conflict and the U.S. relationship with Israel. Can Obama rebut that criticism and focus on ending the Iraq War and killing Osama bin Laden?
5. A NEW MEME? First Big Bird. Then “binders full of women.” Watch Twitter to see whether another phrase catches fire while the debaters are still onstage.
(AP)
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8 Responses
1. Obama edged Romney in the second? First time I’ve seen that claim anywhere. Oh wait, I forgot this is coming from the leftist U.S. media.
3. “The former governor and businessman has limited foreign experience.” Obama had NO experience when he became President, and it still shows.
Obama did not edge Romney in the second debate. The only difference was that Obama actually showed up this time. Since he was not asleep on the jon like the first debate, the leftist media is painting a picture of victory, but that is just not the case.
I don’t think that a frum yeshivishe website should list item #5. There is no need to expose readers to the world of Big Bird and their shtus TV shows. In addition the “binders full of women” comment is not tznius at all, especially with the current Shidduch Crisis.
Please filter these articles next time – thank you!
According to APobama, Fearless Leader won the debate. If he won the debate, we would have seen a bump in his poll numbers. We have NOT seen a bump in his poll numbers however we HAVE seen a nice bump in Romney’s numbers, which means that Romney won the debate (and IYH the election!).
Granted, if one were to follow the obama logic used when trying to explain the lower gas prices when he took office (“We were in a recession.), one could say that not having your poll numbers drop like a brick is equal to a gain.
Romney at some point should say , Mr President you’re on your own for this debate. You don’t have Crowley to defend you.
5. The Dinosaur, Bob Schieffer, is JUST as bad!
1. Romney clearly won the second debate as well, though not nearly as decisively as he won the first one.
2. 0bama did not call the consulate attack “an act of terror”. His claim that he did was disingenuous. And his administration handling of the Libya affair is perhaps the biggest scandal since Watergate. They deliberately pretended that it was about a video, when they knew from the beginning that it was a prepared attack by an al-Qaeda-linked group, but that did not suit their agenda so they tried to cover it up. They also deliberately minimised security at the outpost, ignoring all the requests from people on the spot, because they wanted to show a low profile, and we see what was the result.
3. Romney’s foreign experience is greater than most who seek the presidency.
4. His remarks on the London olympics may have annoyed local officials, but they were greatly appreciated by Londoners. And if his remarks on Israel upset “Palestinian leaders” then that’s a good thing. We should want a president who is unashamedly on our side and against our enemies. 0bama has destroyed our relations with other countries; the whole world holds him in contempt. Romney will try to rebuild them.
5. Yes, he “hasten[ed] to criticize the administration’s response even as chaotic events were unfolding in Libya and Egypt”. What’s wrong with that? The administration was acting against America’s interests, apologising to our enemies and trying to placate them instead of standing up to them, and Romney lashed into them for it. He turned out to be 100% right.
5. Of course there will be a new “meme”. The Democrats have a campaign prepared, just as they did the first two times; they’re just waiting to pick a word from the debate, and it makes no difference what Romney says, they’ll pick something, anything, and make it controversial. There was nothing at all offensive or awkward about the phrase “binders of women” until the Democrats announced that it was suddenly and retroactively inappropriate. A week ago nobody would have raised an eyebrow at the phrase. So why did it become such a thing? Because they made it so. It’s the “big lie”; say often and loudly that something is offensive, and people start believing it.
By the way, commenter #3 (GeshmakMan), what’s untzniusdik about “binders full of women”? Is it the word “women” that must be banned from Yeshivish sites?!
Geshmakman, if you watched the debate you would know that binders full of woman is not reffering to anything untsnius at all. He was referring to the fact that he has info on tons of qualified, and educated women in the work force. If a frum man cannot read that sentence and control himself., we are in a lot more trouble than I thought.
Also, big bird is not shtus. I know a TON of frum families that have a tv and DVD player, no channels, that play Elmo and other Sesame Street type shows for their kids. If you are someone who finds that to be shtus, why on earth on you on the Internet ?