2012 Presidential Debate III: Obama must tell his policy
The third debate will be about foreign policy. Praising himself for killing Osama bin Laden has lost its effectiveness, and the White House knows this. The murder of four United States citizens including Ambassador Chris Stevens began as a debacle for the administration and has now cratered into a political nightmare.
Mr. Obama was rescued by moderator Candy Crowley in the second debate because she wanted to get to other topics. Bob Schieffer will not have such latitude because foreign policy is the entire discussion.
On domestic policy, President Obama can blame everybody else for everything that has gone wrong. Everything is the fault of George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Congressional Republicans, the Koch Brothers, Grover Norquist, and (in case of emergency break glass and shriek about) Sarah Palin. No matter how bad the economy gets, Mr. Obama will say he inherited a mess.
This does not work with foreign policy. Everything happened on Mr. Obama’s watch, and the results sprung directly from his decisions and actions, or in many cases indecision and inaction.
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