Obama-Romney, Needless Round

The third and final debate between the two candidates was about foreign policy — a topic that, in a time of recession, interests very few Americans. Regardless, the better-prepared president performed better than his challenger.

Only 28 minutes had passed from the beginning of the third presidential debate when both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney made a 180-degree turn. From foreign policy — Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan — which was the theme of the evening, the two candidates began to discuss America, employment, development, growth, education. This was nothing to do with the world outside the United States, despite useless attempts by the moderator to return to talk about the rest of the planet.

Obama and Romney had begun the third and final debate before the election (Nov. 6) very cautiously. Romney declared himself in agreement with Obama regarding certain topics; the president avoided beating blows on his challenger. The only stab Barack made was about the foreign policy of the last Republican president, George W. Bush.

But last night was useless in terms of trying to understand something about the differences between the candidates’ positions on international issues. Obama and Romney know that the fight for the White House is all about domestic politics and the economy, and therefore a question as important as the defense budget can be seen only in terms of domestic function: How many jobs will it fund, how will resources be distributed among the various areas of the budget. Relations with China triggered only the discussion between he who invested in businesses that moved jobs away from the United States (Romney) and he who instead wants to bring them back home (Obama).

There were also some problems that were handled very diplomatically between the two candidates, such as the question about nuclear weapons and Iran. Obama said that he would stand next to Israel if they were attacked by Iran, and Romney essentially repeated the same position, leaving aside suggestions of a preemptive attack. Rather, Romney said for the first time that military use should be the last option, after diplomacy and sanctions. Then he silently accepted Obama’s interruption, when he said, “Whether it’s supporting women’s rights, whether it’s supporting religious minorities, whether it’s supporting children’s rights* … the United States of America has stood on the right side of history.”

Therefore, it was an almost useless debate, this third and last, because it was dedicated to a topic as little-discussed as foreign policy: The White House depends upon other grounds, such as solutions to bring work to the 12 million unemployed.

In any case Barack Obama seemed to have stood out during the debate, taking advantage of the fact that Mitt Romney tried in every way to avoid the gaffes of the second debate to conclude the debate with an honorable draw.

Ultimately, a foreign policy debate such as this that took place in Florida makes little sense seeing that the president knows everything, really everything that has happened in the past four years, while his challenger can only rely on conjectures, reflections and propagandistic phrases. Moreover, most of Romney’s foreign policy advisers belong to the world of neo-cons who are not simply intellectually responsible for all the errors and all of the tragedies that occurred during the eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency.

PS 2: The debate lasted 82 minutes and 48 seconds instead of the expected 90 minutes, signifying that there was very little desire to talk about foreign policy.

*Editor’s Note: The original quote by Obama did not include the words “whether it’s supporting children’s rights,” which the Italian article included in the quote. See Obama’s original quote at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/us/politics/transcript-of-the-third-presidential-debate-in-boca-raton-fla.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.