Final Obama Romney Debate on Foreign Affairs

The final presidential debate of the 2012 election was aired Oct 22. President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney sat face to face to discuss foreign policy of America. According to ABC News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, as well as polls from Fox and CBS, President Obama was the winner of the debate.
In a time of economic troubles and unemployment, foreign policy wasn’t given as much attention as on other issues, so the debate provide a chance for Americans to get a better idea of the candidates’ foreign policies.
The president took the aggressive and confident approach. “America is stronger now than when I came into office,” Obama said. Obama also commented toward Romney, “We also have things called aircraft carriers that planes land on and submarines that go under water.”
Romney had a few harsh words of his own. Romney accused the president of having “wasted these four years” by failing to discontinue Iran’s nuclear program and letting the Middle east fall into a “tumult.”
Romney was in support of a less military-dominated foreign policy, but rather more diplomatic solutions. “We don’t want another Iraq, we don’t want another Afghanistan,” Romney said.
Obama called the events in Syria “heartbreaking,” but wished to stay out of it. Romney said he would like to provide weapons to the rebels.
But the debate wasn’t all disagreements. In fact, there was quite a bit of agreement between the two candidates. Both Obama and Romney said they would stand by Israel if attacked by Iran, and both promised to have troops out of Afghanistan by 2012.
At one point Obama accused Romney of flip-flopping on his opinions, by saying he was “all over the map,” and provided examples.
The consensus is that Obama was the winner of the debate but it is still unknown of how much of an effect this win will have on race.