October 22, 2012
By AnomalyWith a close race after all these months, President Obama and Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney went into their third and final debate in Boca Raton, Florida, with the topic focusing on foreign policy.
The moderator, Bob Schieffer of CBS News, has six 15-minute segments. Each segment begins with a question, followed by two-minute responses for each candidate and discussion facilitated by the moderator.
The topics: America’s role in the world; our longest war, Afghanistan and Pakistan; red lines and Israel and Iran; two segments on the changing Middle East and the new face of terrorism; the rise of China and tomorrow’s world. The topics may come up in a different order and could change as warranted by breaking news.
The first question given was responded to first by Mitt. Romney.
Moderator asks: The challenge of the middle east. The controversy over Libya. Was it an attempt to mislead people?
Romney, “This is an area of great concern. We’ve seen in nation after nation, disturbing events. We have in Egypt a Muslim Brotherhood President. We’re closer to a nuclear Iran. We can’t kill our way out of this mess.
Obama, “We focused on those who actually killed us on 9/11 as a consequence Al Qaeda’s core leadership has been decimated… With respect to Libya, Number one, we did every thing we could to secure that those Americans who were still in harm’s way. Number two, that we would investigate what happened. Number three: that we would bring those responsible to justice.
We made sure that without putting troops on the ground, that we got rid of a despot that killed Americans. Governor Romney, Your strategy previously has been one that’s all over the map. It’s not designed to keep Americans safe.
Romney, “My strategy is pretty straightforward — to go after the bad guys. My strategy is broader than that. We need to get the Muslim world to reject extremism. We need to go after these various groups. We need economic development. Better education and gender equality.
(Oh Christ, he’s all over the place. Sorry, it’s hard to translate word salad)
“Assad is killing his own people….Iran is getting nuclear capability…”
Romney went onto say that Iran is our greatest threat.
Obama, “I’m glad you realize that Iran is a nuclear threat. A few months ago, you said that Russia was our biggest geopolitical threat. Not Al Qaeda or Iran, but Russia. You say you’re not interested in duplicating what happened in Iraq, but you said a few ago that you want to escalate troops in Iraq. We need strong leadership, not reckless leadership that’s all over the map.”
At this point Romney expressed that Obama was attacking him, then went onto to deny stating previously that he would leave troops in Iraq.
More to come. I need popcorn.
