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Who Won the Obama-Romney Foreign Policy Debate? >

Obama Could Not Defend His Record

Mitt Romney looked presidential while Barack Obama came across as a jerk

October 23, 2012

The debates are now history.

Game seven of the National League Championship Series was competing with the debates last night, and there was a point where that game looked awfully attractive.

Mitt Romney won the debates. The first debate catapulted Romney into the lead. The second debate helped him but did little more. Romney's objective in this debate was simple: Don't blow it.

He didn't.

President Barack Obama is allegedly a great debater. That's an interesting allegation. Obama has not done a tough interview in four years, and he did not do well in any of these debates. Obama came across as a rude bully—he interrupted Romney repeatedly. He came across like a jerk, while Romney looked presidential. Obama tried to rewrite history and failed miserably.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the 2012 campaign.]

Romney nailed Obama early. He said when he was president, Vladimir Putin would not get more flexibility—he would get more backbone.

Mysteriously, Obama wanted to spend a lot of time on domestic policies, which was not the subject of the debate. That is an area of strength for Romney.

Romney quoted facts and figures. Obama could not defend his record because it is indefensible. On Facebook and Twitter, people laughed when Obama said he had Israel's back.

While these debates have been interesting, they are a joke. This year all four debates were hosted by liberal moderators. In two of the debates, the moderators were horribly biased against the Republican candidates. Jim Lehrer and Bob Scheiffer were mostly fair.

[Check out our editorial cartoons on President Obama.]

In four years, we will have another set of debates. In 2008, we had nothing but liberal moderators. In 2012, we had nothing but liberal moderators. By 2016, we need to have the ideological diversity that America has. At least half the moderators need to be conservatives.

While these debates were interesting, next time we need some real debates, not just more dog and pony shows.

Tags:
foreign policy,
Barack Obama,
Mitt Romney,
2012 presidential election
Other Arguments
#1

Obama — Barack Obama won the third debate, but Mitt Romney won the debate season

FORD O'CONNELL, Republican Strategist, Conservative Activist, and Political Analyst

#2
#3

Obama — Barack Obama turned up the heat on Mitt Romney

LARA BROWN, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Villanova University

#4

Obama — Barack Obama won by calling out Mitt Romney on his flip-flopping

BRAD BANNON, President of Bannon Communications Research

Reader Comments ()

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