Requiem for Mitt Romney

There was a debate in the 2008 cycle where all the candidates ganged up on Mitt Romney.  John McCain, Rudy Guiliani, Mike Huckabee, etc., all took their shots at him, leaving Romney more than once during the debate to question why all the personal attacks.  When the debate was over, and the candidates shake hands and smile for the camera, none of them would shake Romney's hand.  Rachel Maddow said the other Republicans were acting like mean girls.

I remember that moment, and I remember the faith speech he gave prior to the Iowa caucus.  He didn't want to address his religion so early in the campaign, but with staunch anti-Mormonism from the religious right, stoked by Huckabee's whisper campaign ("Don't they believe Jesus and Satan are brothers?") Romney gave his speech.  He did it in a way that didn't put religious bigotry to rest, but it at least dampened it.  Romney had other problems in 2008, like running as the "social conservative" in the group, but his camp believed the "Mormon question" had hurt him.

Four years later, it didn't matter so much.  Romney had the money and experience to make him a stronger candidate.  Even though the Republicans didn't want him as the nominee, always picking someone else with him as second choice, all the other candidates wilted under the spotlight.  At different points, Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum led in the GOP polls.  For all the hand-wringing now, does anyone really believe one of the those five would have done better?

The 2012 cycle took longer, partly due to some dissatisfaction with John McCain wrapping it up so early in 2008, a clearly flawed candidate.  And so Mitt Romney had to play the games one plays in primary politics.  He flanked Perry to the right on immigration.  He had to defend RomneyCare against ObamaCare and explain why what was good for Massachusetts would be disastrous for the nation.  His campaign took turns with attack ads on whoever was the frontrunner, but each and every frontrunner took their best shot on him and couldn't topple him.  It took its toll though.  Perry supporters didn't instantly switch to Romney supporters.  Same with Santorum's or Gingrich's.  Ron Paul supporters never switched to Romney, even if Paul was the one guy on stage he made a point not to attack.

While Romney was finishing them off, the Obama campaign was already planting the seeds.  They followed the playbook of George W. Bush in 2004.  Ironic much?  The Bush team canvassed their states and identified their voters and got them out.  It was about turnout of the base.  They also had to weaken their opponent, so the Bush team went after John Kerry's Vietnam tour with the Swiftboat Veterans.  Kerry never recovered.

The positive campaign the Obama team ran in 2008 wasn't going to work a second time around.  They didn't have the luxury of the high ground.  Plus with Super-PACs in play, neither candidate could keep control of their message.  Who can forget the ad that implied Romney gave a woman cancer?

Romney's strength was his economic prowess, so that's what they went after.  Romney was now Gordon Gekko, an evil corporate raider who destroyed companies and made millions.  The image stuck for enough people.

So what could he have done differently?

1. Tell the truth.  Romney has a certain cavalier attitude toward truth in politics. It's as though he believes everyone's going to lie, and he's here to play the game. Like Survivor.  But it was too easy to look at how he ran for Senate in 1994, how he governed in 2002, how he campaigned in 2008, and how he campaigned in 2012 that made people wonder. "Who is the real Mitt Romney?"  There were answers he'd give in the primary debates where I felt like he was telling the far-right what they wanted to hear but wouldn't really govern that way if elected.

2. Change the Convention order.  It may have seemed like a coup to get Clint Eastwood to speak ("former Republican mayor"), but it shouldn't have been in primetime.  There was a series of speakers who came to the podium one by one and shared brief stories of acts of service or kindness they'd received from Romney.  It not only humanized him but underlined how compassionate a man he could be. It was a side of him the electorate needed to see, and a side he'd never boast of.  It was a side that few people saw, because it didn't happen in primetime.  Instead his own speech wasn't that memorable, and all people could talk about was The Chair.

3. Pick a different Vice-President.  Romney figured he needed a pick to excite the base, so he doubled-down on the economic question and picked Paul Ryan.  Trouble is, Ryan had a budget the Obama team could criticize.  It didn't matter that Obama hasn't had a budget in three years; Ryan's suggestions were full of those that would raise the tax burden on poor and middle-income families.  And if Ryan was a such a fiscal conservative, why did he support Medicare Part-D and TARP and the bailouts?  He was just another white male Republican.

4. Get out of the echo chamber.  Romney was a numbers guy, but the team around him was giving him bad numbers.  "Oh, don't worry about Nate Silver. He's biased.  Look at Rasmussen! Look at our own internal polling."    Romney believed with all his heart on Tuesday he was going to win.  His consultants were charlatans.

5. Campaign for everyone.  How many times did we hear "small business"?  What about the people who don't own a small business?  He needed better articulation on why his plans would help everyone, not just the rich and entrepreneurial.

6. Don't criticize the "other."  The Obama team did a good job of "otherizing" Mitt Romney. He's not one of us.  But Romney fell into the trap when speaking to some wealthy donors, telling them what they wanted to hear.  There's a reason the "47%" comment was leaked in September even though he'd said it in May.  He may or may not personally feel disdain for those who don't pay federal income tax, but hey Fox News portrays them as freeloaders, so let's follow that narrative.  I make a decent living, but once I take my earned income tax credit, child tax credits, charitable deductions, mortgage deduction, and medical expenses deduction, I paid very little federal income tax last year.  I imagine plenty of other families out there making $30, $40, $50, $60,000 a year find themselves in the same boat.  It showed a disconnect.

7. Give a vision for the future.  Obama kept talking about moving "forward." Romney's campaign was more about hearkening back to Reagan's America, a military superpower, a shining beacon on the hill of low taxes and low regulations.  Each president is right or wrong for their time, and Reagan was right for his time.  But fellas, that was thirty years ago.  Nostalgia has never won a campaign.  Maybe Grover Cleveland.

So now the dust has settled, and Romney, unfortunately, rather than fading into the sunset, made some more conference calls to donors and supporters, and had the "gifts" gaffe.  The 2012 election was one of the smallest and shallowest in history, not to mention the most negative.  Big Bird, Binders of Women, "You Didn't Build That", etc.  And the "gifts" comment is a postscript to it.

That one word has emboldened other Republican leaders to condemn him and push him aside, Gov. Bobby Jindal first and foremost.  The fight for 2016 starts now, and the GOP would like a new leader.

Victory has a thousand fathers but defeat is an orphan.  I don't see Romney settling into an elder statesman role for the party.  Looks like most of the establishment guys are eager to get rid of him.  A lot of "I told you so" columns being written.

Romney never had many friends in the Republican Party.  His selling point was his management style.  His electability.  Now that he lost his election, that his team wasn't as well-managed as the other guy, they might come back to him for money, but that's about it.  The Romney candidacy is going to be like the second term of George W. Bush: something the Republican Party would like to forget ever happened.

Republican, Heal Thyself

After every presidential election, there is soul-searching, and if the Republicans want to get anywhere, to stay vital, to have a voice, they need to look within, and it needs to be more than a cosmetic gaze.  National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru had one of the better essays on what the GOP needs to do.

Republicans don't like being labelled as racist, sexist, homophobic, etc., but they make it too easy sometimes.  Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock lost two "gimme" Senate seats because they didn't know how to not bungle a rape question.  Gains that George W. Bush made in attracting Latinos to the GOP were lost in the 2008 and 2012 elections when hard-liners made illegal immigration their #1 issue.  Most Latino-Americans want our borders secured too, but I saw more than one FB post from conservatives with the parable of Joe Legal and Jose Illegal.  When a candidate would say "We love legal immigrants" it rang hollow.

The vast majority of African-Americans voted with Obama in 2008, and even if most of them wouldn't switch for any reason, there needs to be a long game played.  Harping on the "New Black Panther Party" and bringing up the birth certificate issue over and over did nothing but hurt feelings now and deepen distrust for the future.

The media and pollsters are obsessed with demographic breakdown, and it's clear certain demographics just favor Democrats more.  The GOP needs to resist the urge of demographic pandering but more importantly, they need to stamp out the appearance of demographic dismissal.  Saying "Oh, single women voted 67% for Obama?  Eh, they just want big government as their sugar daddy" will do nothing to leave the door open to sway single women in the future.

This time around would be tough because of the primary process, regardless of who won.  It was also tough because of which candidates chose to run.  Perfectly qualified, interesting people like Jon Huntsman, Gary Johnson and Buddy Roemer were ignored in favor of sideshow candidates like Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann.  Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, et al., had ZERO chance in a general election, and everyone knew it, but they were still allowed on stage.  The debates, while entertaining and informative, also did long-term damage.  And it's not just the candidates' fault. Who can forget the audience booing the gay soldier, or booing the Golden Rule?

There's also conservative media to consider.  We live in an age where people can get news from an infinite numbers of sources, most of it unreliable, and more and more, people are consuming news that reaffirms their world-view.  If you only watch MSNBC and read Daily Kos, for instance, you'd think Mitt Romney was one of the most evil men to ever run for president.  And a conservative may nod and feel superior to that silly notion.  But it sure seems like there are plenty of conservatives out there who only listen to Rush Limbaugh, watch Fox News, and read sites like WND for their info.

Mitt Romney was a flawed candidate, but I think he would have been a good president.  I'll do a separate piece on him specifically, but the American people rejected the Republicans this year.  Sure, we can argue turnout, margins of victory, voter fraud allegations, etc., but the Democrats did soul-searching in 2004 when they lost by similar margins and they came out better for it.  Time for the Republicans to do the same.

Last Night's Winners & Losers

WINNER - Barack Obama.  He beat the odds historically.  He's the first President since James Monroe to win a second-term following two other two-term presidents.  He got 8 million fewer votes than he did in 2008 and still won.

LOSER - Paul Ryan.  No one expected Romney to win Massachusetts, but Ryan couldn't deliver Wisconsin, he lost his debate to Joe Biden, and he's a white guy.

WINNER - The Democratic Party.  They've increased their pull with women, minorities, and the youth vote, and the shifting demographic of the nation are all in their favor.

LOSER - White men. They went overwhelmingly for Romney, but it didn't matter.  And since white men are losers, no way the GOP nominates a white man in 2016.  They're tired of the "racist, sexist" cudgel from the Left and will do whatever they can to change it.  Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Kelly Ayotte, Condi Rice have to all be on wish-lists for the GOP in 2016.  Sorry, Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Jon Huntsman, etc.  You have no chance.

WINNER - Pollsters.  Namely the RealClearPolitics.com average and Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com.  They wound up being right on just about every state.  Again.

LOSER - Dick Morris and Karl Rove. I seriously don't understand why Fox News hasn't fired these guys yet. They have been so wrong for so long and don't bring anything to the table, other than advertising money from their PACs, I guess.  Dick Morris was claiming a landslide for Romney after polls were closing and none of those numbers were baring out.  Karl Rove's meltdown when he thought Fox called Ohio too early was priceless.  They are millstones.

WINNER - Bob Scheiffer.  The best presidential moderator of the year, maybe ever. He did it perfectly.

LOSER - Candi Crowley and Jim Lehrer. Lehrer was about as effective as Larry King ("what's the difference between you two?") and Crowley incorrectly interceded to help push a false narrative and ruined her aura of impartiality.

WINNER - Negative campaigning.  It did its job. It supressed voter turnout, and Obama, whose ads were 85% negative, won.  2016 is going to be terrrrrrible.

LOSER - Big Money.  Six billion dollars were spent on this campaign, and we essentially got the same government we had last week.  What was the freakout about Citizens United again? Anyway, rich people can expect their taxes to go up.

WINNER - Harry Reid. He keeps his power in the Senate and he's still the most powerful Mormon politician in America.

LOSER - The Primary process.  Someone please explain to me why Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina get to be the first three states every year?  They always wind up determining the nominee.  Meanwhile, since Obama had no challenger, the Republicans went through one of the nastiest, most prolonged fights for the nomination in some time.  You had freaks and geeks like Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum and Herman Cain strutting their stuff when they had no business on stage and no one in the world believed they could actually be president, and yet they got to spout their stuff and have walking jokes like Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry take turns hammering Romney.  By the time he'd secured the nomination, the damage was done.

WINNER - Joe Biden.  HBO is going to make him a HERO when they make Game Change II.

LOSER - Game Change II: The Book. Can't see how it'll be as good as the first one.  And the HBO movie will actually probably make the main character Todd Akin.

WINNER - Claire McCaskill.  Missouri was ready to throw her out, but then Todd Akin revealed himself to be quite the idiot when it comes to how the female body works.

LOSER - Social conservatives.  Some states have made gay marriage and marijuana legal, and Akin & Mourdock helped frighten enough women that abortion rights might be curbed that women wound up citing "abortion" as their #1 issue in exit polls.

WINNER - Some Democrats in Utah actually won some races. Jim Matheson held on to his Congressional seat once again, and Ben McAdams is the new Salt Lake County mayor.

LOSER - Mia Love was poised to be a star in the GOP, but somehow she lost her race.

WINNER - The uninsured.  ObamaCare is here to stay.

LOSER - The economy. Did you see the Dow today? Did you notice the debt ceiling will need to be raised again pretty soon? Unemployment is still at 7.9%.  Gas prices are still high.  So... yeah. Precarious.

WINNER - The American People.  Decisive win means no lawsuits and no repeat of the 2000 mess. A peaceful transfer or maintenance of power.  The election's over so no more political ads popping up everywhere.  It's always right after an election when people are most willing to work together and get things done. The speeches by Obama and Romney last night were examples of encouraging in victory and gracious in defeat. And I'll end on that note.

Obama wins

Heading to bed. Analysis tomorrow.

Sticking with CNN

CNN's Jessica Yellin reports that Obama camp predicts they'll win Pennsylvania.

Candi Crowley is the CNN reporter in the Romney camp. Seems like an inside joke.

Uh-oh. It's 6:00pm. Wolf Blitzer is giddy.  Here we go.  Obama gets Connecticut, D.C., Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island.  Maine will send at least 3 of their 4 Electoral Votes to Obama.

Romney gets Oklahoma.

Romney up 19-3 in Electoral College vote

It's going to be a long night.

I've flipped through the three cable channels.  Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly anchoring on Fox News, actual news anchors.  But their guest list includes Sarah Palin, Laura Ingraham, Karl Rove, Liz Cheney... heh.

MSNBC has the same six they had in 2010.  Maddow, Matthews, O'Donnell, Sharpton, Schultz, and the hero of HBO's Game Change - Steve Schmidt.  Not even pretending to be a news network anymore.

CNN has an Ohio countdown clock.  Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Erin Burnett on location in Ohio. Peter Henry (?) says a source within the Romney camp said their internal polling showed them down 5 in Ohio but it was tighter in Pennsylvania.  Innnnteresting.

Diane Sawyer acting drunk on ABC.  One of the SNL ladies needs to pay attention.

Election Day Tidbits

7 Things I've Read Recently

1. MSNBC really is more left-wing partisan than Fox News is right-wing partisan.  I mean, it was obvious from the 2010 Election coverage on that this was the case, but independent studies confirm.  I liked what I heard one talking head say over the weekend.  He said we should quit referring to them as cable news but as 24-hour cable op-eds.

2. The press seems to be helping Obama run out the clock on Benghazi.  Yesterday, CBS released more footage from their 60 Minutes interview they'd conducted on September 12 and aired September 23.  It would have been very illuminating if they'd had it be part of the original broadcast, or released it the day after the second debate where Obama insisted he did call the attack on Benghazi an act of terror in the Rose Garden.  But no, they quietly dump it right before the election.

3. Barack Obama ran the most negative campaign in modern history.  They say negative campaigning works because Bush was so much more negative than Kerry in 2004.  Didn't work for McCain; we'll see if it works for Obama.

4. By overpraising Pres. Obama and refusing to make an appearance with Mitt Romney in Pennsylvania, if Romney loses, Chris Christie will not be the front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2016.

5. Nate Silver has Obama winning the Electoral College 313-225 and the popular vote by 2.5%.

6. The RealClearPolitics average has it at 303-235 and 0.7% for Obama.

7.  Gallup and Rasmussen are the only major polls that have Mitt Romney winning, both by 49-48 margins. But here's a link to where all the pundits are predicting.  Let's hold them accountable.

8.  In 2013, America will still be here.  I didn't read that; I just thought I should say it because so many people on the wings are convinced that if their guy loses, we're doomed.  Dooooomed.

67 Things I Learned from the Final Presidential Debate

"Ha ha, Mitt, if you get ahead in Ohio, I've got a drone with your name on it."

1.  Pres. Obama and Gov. Romney have no problem lying right to each other's faces right off the bat. They shook hands with big smiles and both said "Nice to see you again."
2.  Bob Schieffer sets the table nicely for Libya, asking if it was an intelligence failure, was it a policy failure?
3.  First shot of Obama while Romney is giving his answer screams disdain.
4.  Romney gives credit for the president having Bin Laden killed, but talks about the continued spread of al-Qaeda. "We can't kill our way out of this mess."
5.  Obama "My first job is to keep the American people safe, and that's what I've done the past four years.  We ended the war in Iraq." Gets to Libya, says the first three things he did when he heard was to see if they could get our people out safely, make sure we investigate what happened, and then find and bring to justice whoever killed those four men.

6.  Says Romney's all over the map on foreign policy and his strategy wouldn't keep America safe.
7.  Romney says we don't want another Iraq or Afghanistan, says economic development helps with foreign relations, better education, gender equality, etc. We've watched this rising tide of tumult and chaos in the Middle East... and now we get to our first interruption.
8.  Obama says Romney wants the foreign policy of the 1980's, the social policies of the 1950's and the economic policy of the 1920's. (I wonder how long ago that line was written.)  Now he's being condescending "I know you haven't had a chance to execute foreign policy..." (Oh, like you had before you were elected?)  Says Romney's wrong and "all over the map" again.
9.  Back to Romney, says he doesn't concur with what Obama just said, and they don't happen to be accurate. "Attacking me is not an agenda." Ooh, Obama didn't like that one. Obama goes to interrupt again and Romney says "Excuse me" and continues. Says he won't wear rose-colored glasses when it comes to Russia, says he won't give Russia "more flexibility" after the election, he'll give "more backbone."
10. Regarding Iraq, we agreed on a status of forces agreement in Iraq; Obama interrupts and says no, he didn't. (I've already read that Obama fails the fact-check on that one.)

11. Obama says we need to recognize we can't keep doing nation building in these regions, we need to nation-build at home too.
12. Schieffer wants to go into more depth with Syria.
13. Obama said Assad has to go, they've organized sanctions, they've provided relief, but Syrians have to determine their own future.
14. Romney says 30,000 Syrians killed is a humanitarian disaster, also says Syria is Iran's closest ally, so removing Assad is a high priority. Emphasizes we don't want to do military intervention, but we will do everything else we can to help the resistance. I believe Assad must go and will go. We've seen our policy say "Oh, we'll let the UN deal with it." That didn't work. "We'll let Russia deal with it." That didn't work. We need to have a leadership role in this.
15. Obama: "We do have a leadership role." He goes at Romney again like he's the challenger and Romney's the incumbent.

16. Romney: "This has been going on for a year. We should taken a leadership role on this." Wants to arm the resistance.
17. Obama said Romney is basically arguing for what we're already doing in Syria.
18. Schieffer (who's doing great) asks if Obama regrets saying Mubarak has to go when he said it.
19. Obama does not regret it. Says America needs to stand for democracy whereever it may spring. Says Egypt has to abide by their treaty with Israel.
20. Romney says the US has 42 allies around the world, but says nowhere in the world is our influence greater now than it was four years ago. America has the responsibility and privilege of defending freedom around the world.  When people vote, they tend to vote for peace.  Interesting to hear how often Romney uses the word "peace."

21. Romney talks about needing a strong military because we don't know what's coming.  Said terrorism never came up in 2000 debates, but a year later, 9/11 happened.
22. Obama: "America is the world's one indispensible nation." (Huh, I wonder how other countries will take that line.) My plan will rebuild America. We won't reward companies for shipping jobs overseas. We need to reduce our deficit; unfortunately Romney's plan won't do that.  At home and abroad, Romney's proposed wrong and reckless policies. (I think that's the second time he used that phrase.)
23. Romney says he'll fix the economy with five steps. 1. Move toward energy independance. 2. Improve our trade. We can do better, especially in Latin America. Latin America's economy's almost as big as China's. 3. We need trainer programs to improve job skills and have better school. 4. We need a balanced budget. 5. We've got to champion small business.
24. Obama slams Romney's record in Massachusetts on small business. Under my leadership, we improved education.
25. Romney praises Massachusetts' education system. Obama interrupts again to say the good stuff happened before he got there. Romney plows through, says they improved education. (Obama's getting Biden-esque in his interruptions.) Romney says, "That was mine; you got that fact wrong."

26. Obama says the military does not want the extra $2 trillion in spending that Romney's asking for. Military spending has gone up every year under me. We can't spend $5 trillion on tax cuts without naming what deductions we're getting rid of. The math doesn't work. We need to be thinking about capabilities.
27. Romney: "I'm pleased that I've balanced budgets. I've been in business for 25 years. If you didn't balance a budget, you went out of business. I went to the Olympics and balanced the budget there. I went to Massachusetts, balanced the budgets there. The president has yet to balance a budget. I hope I get the opportunity to do so." Our Navy is smaller now than anytime since 1917. We're shrinking through sequestration. Our Air Force is older and smaller. I will not cut our military by a trillion dollars, which is the president's plan.
28. Obama says sequestration will not happen. (Um, it is happening.) Gov. Romney says we have fewer ships in the Navy [FactCheck: Navy was actually smallest under GWB]. Well, we also use fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military's changed.  "We have these things called aircraft carriers than planes can land on. We have these underwater ships called nuclear submarines..." The Navy isn't a game of Battleship.  (Horses and bayonets would have been a better line if he hadn't kept going and ventured into a-hole territory. Now he's really like the sarcastic challanger trying to get a rise out of the incumbent.) (Marines still use bayonets.)
29. Their approaches telegraph what their internal polling shows, and Obama's being more aggressive here.  Hm...
30. This is a kinder, gentler Romney.  Doesn't want to be rude, wants to be more appealing to women.  Ah, women.  Those delicate flowers who leap like gazelles from a meadow when good manners aren't displayed.

31. Obama says we have the strongest sanctions against Iran in history.
32. Obama's wearing a blue tie and being very appealing to his base. Romney's wearing a red-and-blue striped tie and is tacking to the center.
33. Romney: "When I'm President of the United States, I'll stand with Israel." Finds a nuclear Iran unacceptable. "I laid out a seven-point crippling-sanctions plan for Iran five years ago." Sanctions works, it's working now, I wish they'd been imposed sooner, and they should be increased.  Military action is a LAST resort.
34. Scheiffer asks about the story that the US and Iran are in negotiations. Obama says that appeared in a newspaper; it's not true. Glad Romney's agreeing with us on Iran now. We have to make sure Russia and China agree with us on sanctions.  It's because the world agreed, the sanctions are working. The inspections are intrusive.
35. Romney says Obama showed weakness when he promised in 2008 to meet with Castro, Chavez, Achmadinejad. Then he started this apology tour and created daylight between us and Israel. (Obama bristled at "apology tour" now looks like he can't wait for his turn. But he's not interrupting.) Romney says we need to indict Achmadinejad.

36. Obama: "Nothing Gov. Romney just said is true." Says "apology tour" is not true, and every reporter agrees. When I was negotiating sanctions, you were invested in a Chinese company that used Iranian oil. (Huh?) When I came into office, the world was in crisis and Iran was surging. Now they're weak.
37. Romney: "We're four years closer to a nuclear Iran." Says the reason he calls it an apology tour is becuz you went to the Middle East, flew to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, and by the way, you skipped Israel, and they noticed you skipped Israel. (Romney looking Obama right in the eye for all this.) You said on Arabic TV that America had been "dismissive and derisive." You said America had "dictated" to other nations. America has not dictated to other nations; America has freed other nations from dictators. (Romney drops the mic, leans back.)
38. Obama: "Bob, let me respond. When I was a candidate for office, the first trip I took was to visit our troops. When I went to Israel as a candidate, I didn't take donors, I visited the Holocaust Museum." (This strangely reinforces an image that he sucked up to Israel when campaigning but now ignores them.) I visited sites where Hamas had rained missiles on houses. That's how I used my travels. This is about who's more credible.
39. Schieffer: "What if the Prime Minister of Israel called and said our bombs are on the way to Iran? How would you respond?" Romney says let's not get into hypotheticals because my relationship with Netanyahu is such that I'd never get that call saying bombers are on the way. This is the kind of thing that would have been discussed well before it got to that.
40. Romney: "Back to what the President said." I see Iran closer to a nuclear weapon. I see jihadists continuing to spread. I see Syria with 30,000 dead and Assad still in power. I see North Korea continuing to export nuclear technology. I don't see our influence growing around the world.

41. Obama: "You've been all over the map." (Drink!) You initially opposed a timetable in Afghanistan, now you're for it, but it depends. You said in 2008 you'd ask permission of Pakistan to look for Bin Laden. If I'd asked for permission, we wouldn't have gotten him. I have made decisions that keep the American people safe. (Strong there.)
42. Schieffer: "What do you do if we get to 2014 and Afghanistan isn't ready to take over their own security?" Romney: "We'll be out by the end of 2014. Our troops will come home at that point." We need to recognize what's happening in Pakistan. Some people want us to wash our hands and walk away from them. I don't mean you, Mr. President, but some people. our aid to Pakistan has to be aligned with benchmarks being met.
43. Obama: "When I came into office, we were mired in Iraq and had been drifting in Afghanistan for a decade." Once Iraq War ended, he surged in Afghanistan, and it was as if we'd forgotten why we were there in the first place. There's no reason for Americans to die when Afghans are capable of defending their own country. After a decade of war, it's time to do some nation-building here at home. We should make sure our veterans are getting the care they need, certifications for good jobs.
44. Romney: "We can't let Pakistan fall. There's nuclear weapons there. I don't blame this administration for strained relations with Pakistan. We had to go in to get Bin Laden."
45. Schieffer asks about drones. Romney says he supports the White House's use of drones "entirely."  (Okay, what about the kill list? Nothing? *sigh*) Is Al-Qaeda on its heels? No. Is there tumult in the Middle East? Yes.

46. Obama comfortably takes the serve from Romney, says Americans should be proud of Tunisians when protesting, America stood with them sooner than any other nations. Egypt, we stood with democracy. Attitudes abroad toward America have changed. Al-Qaeda is much weaker than they were when I took office. (Really, when it comes down to it, the foreign policies of Obama and Romney are going to be about 70% the same; that's what I'm getting at this point.)
47. Obama ties it back to domestic issues regarding trade with China. We've won just about every trade complaint we've filed against China. We stood up for steel-workers in Pennsylvania, tire-makers in [insert swing state here].
48. Romney: "It's not government that makes businesses grow." China wants a stable world. they don't want war. If I'm elected, America will be strong.
49. I'm watching Fox News for this debate, which means no dials across the bottom and about 1/4 of the time, we just get the speaker's face instead of split-screen.
50. Romney: "China is already playing a silent trade-war with us and they're winning. We have to say you can't artificially keep your currency, steal our intellectual property, counterfeit our goods, and steal our jobs."

51. Obama: "Gov. Romney's right..." (holy cow, is Obama about to be cordial?)
52. "...and he is familiar with shipping jobs overseas, but you invested in companies that shipped jobs overseas." (Nope. Very few on the left will agree with this, but Obama is being small right now. Not conveying that "I'm the President; I'm above this" air at all.)
53. Obama: "China can be our partner, but we need to be clear with them, we're a Pacific partner. Ships can pass through. We need to do more trade with other countries so China feels more pressure to comply with international standards."
54. Romney: "Again, attacking me is not an agenda for getting more trade." Goes back to the auto industry. My plan for the auto industry was for them to go through bankruptcy, my plan-- [Obama interrupting again] -- had them being able to shed debt, excess costs. I've never said i would liquidate the industry [Obama: "Let's check the transcript!" Sorry, Mr. president, but Candy Crowley isn't moderating this time.]
55. Romney: "The government is investing in companies like Solyndra, which is the wrong way to go. [Obama: "Governor, I--] I'm still speaking. The prviate sector is not going to invest in solar companies [Obama interrupting...]

56. Obama: "Anyone can look this up.  You keep trying to airbrush history. You said you would not provide govt. assistance to the auto industry even if they went through bankruptcy. You said they could get it in the private marketplace. That isn't true. [Romney: "You're wrong."] I'm not wrong. [Romney: "Anybody can check the record on this."] You're right. People will look it up. [[Politifact and FactCheck agree Obama's wrong.]] For us to be competitive, we need to make smart choices.  Cutting investments in education will not help us keep up with China.  We need more teachers.  $5 trillion in tax cuts will not make us more competitive. Having a tax code that rewards companies for shipping jobs overseas will not keep us competitive.
57. Romney: "I don't want to go back to the policies of the past four years." 23 million still struggling to find a good jobs.  32 million on food stamps when you came to office, 47 million now.  When you came to office, we were almost $11 trillion in debt, now it's $16 trillion. it's critical to make America the most attractive place in the world. Bu the way, the federal government doesn't hire teachers. I was a governor. I love teachers.
58. Schieffer: "I think we can all agree we love teachers." Time to wrap up.
59. Obama: "You've heard three debates, months of campaigning, and way too many TV commercials." (Romney's social laugh.) Gov. Romney's ways are wrong and reckless. He wants to make sure the people at the top don't play by the same rules you do. I want to retrain our workers for the jobs of tomorrow. I want to reduce our deficit by cutting spending we don't need and by asking the wealthy to do a little bit more. After a decade of war, we need to do some nation-building here at home. We always bounce back because of our character. i will listen to your voices; I will fight for your families; I will work every single day to make sure we're the greatest nation on Earth.
60. Romney: "I'm optimistic about the future. I want to see peace. America has the opportunity to elect a leader that will secure peace and make sure this economy will grow. We have two paths. The president's path will mean further decline in take-home pay. I'll make sure we increase take-home pay. I promise 12 million jobs in my first term. Washington is broken. I know what it takes to get us back. We're blessed with a nation prosperous and free thanks to the greatest generation. It's our turn to take that torch. I'll lead you in an open and honest way. We'll work together to maintain America as the greatest hope for freedom.

61. Bob Schieffer leaves us with the wisdom from his mother. "Go vote. It makes you feel big and strong."  And it's over.

Bob Schieffer was great. Easily the best moderator of this season.
As Bret Baier recaps, we get shots of the Romneys and Obamas mingling.  Dang, I'd love to know what Obama just whispered in Tagg's ear.  Romney picks up one of his younger grandkids to meet the President.

Okay, let me digest this a minute...

Okay.  I said I learned 67 things and here they are the rest.

62. Seems pretty clear that Romney's game-plan was to act like he's the incumbent with a slight lead, and Obama debated as if he's the challenger slightly behind.  Obama did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of his base, and Romney passed the "looking presidential" test.  His base will be there; he's still trying to get more of that 4-5% Undecided crowd.

63. Isolating the debate, I'd say Obama edged Romney.  More on offense, more aggressive, but it's a different Obama than we've seen before.  He's decided to be a little more MSNBC, just embrace the inner prick-ness of being the most powerful man in the world.  It's like Obama trying to appeal more to men, where he's behind, and Romney's trying to appeal more to women, where he's behind.  Interesting dichotomy we have going here.

64. We seem to live in a country where half the country thinks that if the other guy wins, America is doomed into a fiery pit of despair.  And by that I mean 24% from this side and 26% from that side.  And you know what, the vast majority of those people vote.

65. Romney's made more of a theme lately of working with Democrats and Republicans of getting things done.  Obama has emphasized continually how Republicans just obstruct everything he tries to do.  And sure they do.  But this is why Obama's not as good a President as Clinton.  Clinton could wage his battles with Newt Gingrich, do it with a smile, negotiate later, and then get things done.  Even when he was getting impeached.

66. Now when it comes to foreign policy, it's pretty clear they have a lot in common.  And some of that is too bad.  Nothing about the NDAA. Nothing about the "kill list." Nothing about the US president deciding he can order the death of anyone deemed a terrorist, including US citizens.

67. Oh well.  The RCP average as of this moment has Romney up +0.9%, so Election Day should be pretty exciting, and so should all the Morning-After lawsuits.