Final Presidential Debate - Game Over?!

WAS IT GOOD ENOUGH TO ENSURE OBAMA"S RE-ELECTION????

  
The most significant event from this week was definitely the third and final presidential debate held in Florida. Obama came with more confidence and coherency on foreign policy than his  challenger and quickly won the upper hand. Over the last four years, as the incumbent he had been receiving new information and gaining the necessary experience. He looked smoother, undisturbed, and more focused on major points, while Romney focused on finding clear differences with Obama’s approaches, hammering him on both foreign and domestic policies.
Compared to what we have seen in the previous debates, this one was circular and quite boring to say the least. It shouldn't have even been called a debate, as Romney spent the majority of 90 minutes agreeing with Obama's policies! That would explain why immediate reaction polls and analysts alike agreed that Obama emerged victorious, with the average of the polls (CBS News, CNN and Google polls) weighing in a 16 point advantage in the President’s favor.      

Perhaps the most bizarre was the fact that Romney agreed with Obama on Bin Laden points, on Iran sanctions and on the status of forces in Iraq. Romney has the same attitude as Obama?! We can all now safely say that Romney now apparently agrees with the Obama administration's foreign policies!

Foreign and security policy is always easier for presidents, given their everyday dealings on the global front. Romney has been doing his own investigations and getting his own reports, however it clearly was not the same. Instead, Romney sounded like he was trying to remember his study notes! As we have seen every time Romney had a chance to talk about economy and education, he did it well an unrehearsed. It seems he feels more comfortable when he is tackling economy and education issues, than foreign policy.

The Libya topic was Romney’s great surprise and his missed opportunity! He was supposed to hammer Obama about the mistakes made in the attack on Benghazi on September, 11, 2012, but instead he talked about better education, gender equality, and missed the opportunity to establish that the Obama administration is not only useless, but also making the USA susceptible to terrorist attacks and endangering the lives of the American people.  

Even though Obama had a solid win at this debate, the polls do not show any major improvement to the Democrat campaign, as there has been little change this week. Perhaps because, the average voter is not as concerned with foreign policy as domestic ones. However, since “winning makes you a winner”, even the slightest edge is beneficial to each campaign.

To conclude, Romney's biggest rival was not the president, it was his own words. Obama did a brilliant job of bringing up past Romney statements – on Iraq, on Afghanistan, on Osama bin Laden – he made him look unprepared for the presidency. 

The only thing that we can do now is to wait for the final voting results and hope that it will just be the beginning of a brighter future and that soon it will be “morning in America, again”. May the best man win!