Commander in Chief

Tonight, in the last debate between President Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts came out looking like he could be America’s president. But Obama did something else tonight: something he has done ever since his disastrous first debate – The President managed to attack his opponent and also look presidential at the same time.

Obama was knowledgeable while Romney appeared like he was not necessarily an opponent. Gov. Romney agreed with Obama at least 90 percent of the time. The only difference he saw was that he would, if he were president, have done things earlier than the president did. Romney agreed with Obama on Syria, on Afghanistan, on drones and especially on Libya. Romney seemed to deny that he had, only a few weeks ago, made the conservative point that Obama was weak in the world. Obama tried to remind him of all these things – and yet somehow, Romney was the Teflon Candidate. Romney was also the flexible candidate. He changed his positions from last week and most people do not seem to care about looking like a flip flopper.

Obama made so many good points. He was the president and looked like it.

Watching the debate from a split screen, one could see two men – one who seemed comfortable in his seat [Romney] and the other trying to withhold his disdain and his outrage at someone who was changing his mind about things and denying the things he had claimed were heartfelt beliefs.

What was most interesting about tonight’s debate is how much both candidates wanted to talk about the domestic issues. They talked about the economy. The conservatives may say that Romney was presidential and all that. But in terms of the economic issues, the president did manage to handle his own.

Romney killed the president with some very difficult zingers. He said Obama came in with a lower deficit and with fewer unemployed people. He said Obama had failed the country. Obama responded very well by pivoting to the touching stories of people he has met in his travels. Then he talked about how his foreign policy has helped people in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Obama talked about teachers. His closing statement went to his hope for the country. And Romney did not kill Obama on Libya.

But the number one reason Obama won this debate is because President Obama had a huge supporter. Mitt Romney was a pure follower of the Obama Doctrine tonight. Will this change the trajectory of the debate? I do not know. However, if you look at the polls, things are not as bad for Obama as they were yesterday.

More on this later.

Dennis Matanda,

Editor – [email protected]