The Shire’s debate non-live blog

Edit – instant polls (for what they’re worth) concur with my assessment that Obama won significantly. That said, this debate probably matters little since people don’t care about foreign policy this election and it was the last debate anyway.

As before, I’m going to offer general comments on the debate rather than a blow-by-blow question-by-question instant reaction blog.

Also, in the interest of full disclosure – in most of these blogging sessions I try to be as unbiased as possible, and I feel I’ve done a decent job at that. Over the summer I worked at a PR consulting firm, mainly working for the Libyan transitional government. Thus I know more about this topic than the topics discussed at the other debates.

Additionally, working in DC was an interesting experience because I came in contact with policymakers. Romney’s foreign policy is terrible, and privately, members of non-partisan think tanks make jokes at Romney’s expense. Romney’s advisors on foreign policy are variable – some are legit, but a few are awful.

Romney’s opening answers have generally been incorrect. I’m not going to comment on what the candidates are saying specifically and you can generally assume that I’m going to disagree with almost everything Romney says. Instead, I’m going to focus on the tactics used by the candidates.

Obama is extremely aggressive this debate, much more than the prior two. He also is able to attack Romney as having basically no foreign policy experience. Additionally, foreign policy allows Obama to look more presidential than domestic policy.

Obama benefits also from what I think is quite a strong foreign policy record and Romney flip flopping policies constantly. Obama can attack the stupider policies Romney has held, since he has such a huge sample of policies to pick from. Additionally, Romney’s lack of concrete policies really hurts him here – on economic issues, the president’s record is poor enough that criticism without solutions is effective. Here, it seems much less so – Obama can openly claim Romney has the exact same policies as he does.

Romney trying to pivot this debate back onto the economy after less than half an hour. I’m interested in whether this is a planned strategy, or if he’s realized that he’s just getting rolled here. That was almost as bad as Obama at the first debate.

I think Romney also has a tendency to get too wonkish here – he’s referencing all sorts of foreign policy events many voters may not be aware of.

Obama spent part of the debate getting sucked into an economic debate here, where he is far weaker. If Romney can actually turn this into the same as the last two debates, he’ll be just fine. Obama seems to be getting sucked into some stupid arguments. For example, arguing about the quality of the Massachusetts education system? The MA education system kicks ass. Why would you argue about this?

When the topic is foreign policy, Romney gets wrecked.

Aww yeah, it only took 50 minutes, but here comes the “apology tour”. Romney is just straight lying, as he has done multiple times in this debate.

Thank god, Obama completely calls Romney on his bullshit.

The hilarious thing about this debate is that Romney is employing the exact same strategy as the economic issues. He’s just attacking Obama in vague ways while not offering his own solutions. In the economic debate, this works. In the foreign policy debate, it looks like he’s just chucking darts at Obama’s policies and hoping that an attack sticks.

Mitt’s body language less confident than in previous debates. He’s speaking faster, and when he’s not talking he’s bobbing uneasily and unsmiling. Meanwhile, Obama continues his infuriating habit of using anecdotes in these debates to answer questions.

WOW – The only thing the two agree on is drone strikes. Dumb Ron Paul fans online must be going nuts and raving about Gary Johnson, the Green Party, and god knows what else. I don’t know what it says about America that the only thing candidates agree on is drone attacks.

Funniest part of this debate is Romney whining about Obama attacking him. Don’t think that looks presidential.