Too Cute by Half?

My favorite part about the 3rd and Final debate is the word "final".

I don't know if I could take another one with all the Super Bowl pre-game build up that is only eclipsed by the post game "Spin room" sessions. I mean, they call it a "SPIN ROOM"! They could release the transcripts before the broadcast and before the actual debate for that matter and then I could go to bed at a reasonable hour.

If I've been ready to cast my vote in this election since the Spring of 2009 then I am twice as ready now.


The pundits on the Right say that Romney's Obama appreciation society was a smart tactic; part of a larger strategy. Very little daylight between their positions. Aimed towards capturing undecided women who are more likely to be war weary doves. In retrospect he was able to lock Obama in a boxer's hug, preventing his opponent from swinging big and landing any blows; ultimately taking Obama out of his own strategy to a point of frustration and visible irritation. Meanwhile, Romney just needed to come away looking "presidential" and not lose the debate or at least not lose it through some grande blunder. And the economy is Romney's big winner so diverting attention away from the domestic issues in the final weeks dilutes his strongest angle of attack.

And if it sends Obama back to Chicago in January, I guess I won't say much more about it. But for now . . .

I was really uneasy about a lack of punches by Romney in the final round of the heavy weight bout. I was made to feel increasingly uneasy as he agreed with Obama on so many foreign policy positions and even responded wrong "in the main" by 180 degrees to say that the mission was close to being achieved in Afghanistan which immediately evoked images of U.S. servicemen being gunned down by newly minted Afghani security forces. Its working, you say? Benghazi went asked (sort of) by Bob Schieffer and totally unanswered and unchallenged.

The Right is dining out days later on zingers about a shrinking Navy and Obama's lame and incorrect response about bayonets. There was really only one truly presidential, albeit Reaganesque moment when Romney went on the attack about the "apology tour". The long answer was very well delivered and perfectly capped off with “We don’t dictate to nations. We free nations from dictators.”

Obama was so flummoxed he turned his head and tried to get a lifeline from the moderator.

enough said.