Final Debate
Final Debate
2012
Heather West
Final Debate
10/23/2012
2012
Heather West
Final Debate
10/23/2012
Heather West
10/23/2012
Sociology
Final Debate
President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney spent their final debate Monday circling the globe’s hot spots as they clashed over the merits of diplomacy and brinkmanship in Libya, Israel, Iran, the Middle East and other volatile areas. But, they also managed to get in digs at their opponents’ economic plans. The topic of the 90-minute clash at Lynn University, their third and final debate, was billed as foreign policy, which polls show is not a major concern of most Americans as they prepare to vote Nov. 6. About one-third of the way through the debate, Obama and Romney turned the talk to the economy, the issue that is overwhelmingly most on voters’ minds. A strong America, Romney said, must have a strong economy. “For us to be able to promote those principles of peace requires us to be strong,” he said. “And that begins with a strong economy here at home. Unfortunately, the economy is not stronger.” Obama, too, wanted to talk about the economy and said his administration has ended the war in Iraq and put the U.S in a position to rebuild. And he charged that Romney would pursue “wrong and reckless policies.” The president was the aggressor from the start, charging, that Romney has “praised George Bush as a good economic steward and Dick Cheney as somebody who shows great wisdom and judgment. And taking us back to those kinds of strategies that got us into this mess, is not the way that we are going to maintain leadership in the 21st century.”
The debate’s main purpose was to give voters a measure of how each candidate would act as commander in chief, and both men tried to portray themselves as resolute as well as reasonable. The two men spent much of their time in broad agreement on a host of issues, including the nation’s deep commitment to Israel, the plan to remove American...