Charles Krauthammer: It’s Unequivocal – Romney Won Debate (Video) + Blog Re-Ax

Wow, Charles Krauthammer really liked Mitt Romney’s performance in tonight’s debate.

I thought it left a little bit to be desired, but Krauthammer makes the point that Romney’s job wasn’t to win political news junkies like me. It was to win over the middle of the roaders. And that – Charles asserted, he did both “tactically and strategically.”

Romney went large, Obama went very very small – shockingly small, he maintained.

Krauthammer said that he would have gone after Obama on Libya with a baseball bat, but that’s why Romney has won elections, and he hasn’t even contested them.

The Hammer said that the high point of the debate for Romney was when “he devastatingly leveled the charge that Obama went around the world on an apology tour. Obama’s answer was ask any reporter and they will tell you it isn’t so – that’s about as weak an answer as you can get. Krauthammer added that Romney’s response was “to QUOTE Obama saying we dictate to other nations, and Romney said we do not dictate to other nations, we liberate them from dictators.”

video via RightSightings

The high point of the debate via The Washington Free Beacon’s  excellent Beastmode:

That is one angry bear.

Another good video via Weasel Zippers: Romney To Obama: I’m Not Going To Tell Putin He’ll Have More Flexibility…

SEE ALSO:

The Lonely Conservative: Final Debate Wrap Up – Romney Wins

I think Mitt Romney won tonight’s foreign policy debate. President Obama looked peeved and angry when he wasn’t laughing. He interrupted Romney numerous times. Romney seemed calm, cool and unflappable. He certainly didn’t come off as some sort of warmonger the Democrats want you to believe he is.

AoSHQ: Romney Wins The War, Again:

Obama’s whole campaign — and his debate strategy — has been to “win the newscycle” and lob a bunch of small-bore attacks and micro-appeals. He keeps doing that and doing that.

I’ve been saying this for a while: You can win every newscycle and still lose. Because people don’t vote on whatever dumb story you pushed into the newscycle. They’re voting the the future, and the country, and their children.

A lot bigger stuff that binders full of Big Bird.

Krauthammer called it an “unequivocal” win for Romney.

Obama had successfully used ads and media allies to paint Romney has a heartless vampire, a soulless robot, a bloodthirsty warmonger.

The story of the debates has been Romney using completely free media to undo all that Narrative, and all that money spent.

I think that Obama was only up because he had gone negative on Romney so hard, as part of the “Kill Romney” strategy they announced 8, 9 months ago.

People do not like the way things are. They do not like the economy and are sick of Obama’s excuses.

The Other McCain: FINAL 2012 DEBATE: ‘FOREIGNERS’:

https://twitter.com/rsmccain/status/260573023097204736

Sundries Shack: Mr. President, Let Me Introduce You to the Men Who Fought the Taliban from Horseback

As it happens, horses played a pretty important role in recent military history as well. Just ten years ago, our invasion of Afghanistan began on horseback. Members of a group called Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595, part of a larger force named Task Force Dagger, which consisted of Green Berets, airmen from the Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and combat controllers from the US Air Force. ODA-595  fought alongside members of the Northern Alliance, horseback, in the first-ever battle against the Taliban.

In fact, that battle, the Battle of Bishqab, featured a cavalry charge.

Jim Geraghty, The Campaign Spot: Focus-Grouped Romney Edges Disdainful Obama:

I suppose the Obama gameplan was to portray Romney as another George W. Bush, and Romney defused that by declaring, “we can’t kill our way out of this problem.” Not the argument you’re used to seeing from a Republican against a Democrat.

Obama’s near-explosion — “bayonets and horses… this isn’t Battleship” will stand out. Boy, was president Obama snippy and sneering  during that answer. Obama couldn’t contain his disdain and contempt for Romney in any of these debates, and it really flared tonight.

Obama’s not a “people person”…

There’s that laser-like focus: Obama ‘death stare’ is the new Biden smirk”:

After a sleepy performance in the first presidential debate, Barack Obama seems to have taken some coaching from his vice president. While the president certainly doesn’t have the teeth to pull off the dreaded “Biden smirk,” his coaches seem to have asked “What else you got?” and found the equivalent in the Obama “death stare.” But will it have a more unnerving effect on Mitt Romney or on the viewing audience?

Everybody noticed it. It was the first thing my husband commented on – “Look at him lean forward and stare – what’s with that?”

So weird…

Look, there are ways of playing  mind games where you don’t come off looking like a jackass. Team Romney knows how to do it – these Chicago Alinskyites are trying too hard.

There’s a reason Obama’s personal approval numbers are falling since these debates. There are many Americans who are seeing Obama’s true character for the first time.

Yuval Levin, NRO: The Final Debate:

If you knew nothing about Barack Obama and Mitt Romney except what you saw in their final debate, you would have assumed that Romney was the incumbent president, that Obama was the challenger trying to unseat him, that Romney was clearly leading in the polls going in and that he remained there going out. You wouldn’t necessarily think Romney won the debate, but you would think he was winning the race.

It was absolutely clear that both candidates understood that this debate was entirely about Mitt Romney. Romney’s only goal was to seem presidential, and Obama’s only goal was to make Romney seem not presidential. By that measure, Romney clearly achieved his aim and Obama clearly did not. Romney did this by treating this debate very differently than the other two. He didn’t really try to score points, and he wasn’t afraid to express agreement with Obama, which he did remarkably often. His goal was to answer every question with a calm, responsible attitude and convey sobriety and level-headedness.  The calculation must have been pretty simple: voters are not greatly concerned with foreign policy this year, but they wouldn’t elect someone they don’t trust on foreign policy. So having clearly conveyed his differences with Obama on domestic issues and his own domestic agenda, Romney merely needed to be a plausible commander in chief—to convey deep knowledge and the right attitude, to avoid getting rattled, to deny Obama the chance to label him a war monger or an amateur, and to waive off attacks on himself by returning to his core domestic message and reminding voters that the president is running on nothing.

Jim Geraghty, Campaign Spot: FactCheck.org to PolitiFact: YOU LIE!

this debate kerfuffle comes down to a distinction between biggest “foe” and biggest “threat.” Obama said Romney called Russia “the biggest geopolitical threat facing America … not al Qaeda.” Romney called Russia “our No. 1 geopolitical foe.” And Romney is correct that he quickly noted in the same interview that “the greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran.”

Sister Toldjah called out PolitiFact on this. Disappointing to see that organization botch their one mission, which is get the facts right.

It’s hard to be disappointed with an outfit that you already know is ridiculously biased.

A view from across the pond, The Telegraph: Romney won the presidential debate by looking presidential. Obama had a painful case of Biden’s smile:

Romney won the third presidential debate – and how he did it was encapsulated in a single exchange. The candidates were discussing military spending and Romney had just accused Obama of making harmful cutbacks. The President wheeled out what must have seemed like a great, pre-planned zinger: “I think Governor Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works. You mentioned the navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military’s changed.” The audience laughed, Obama laughed, I laughed. It was funny.

• Reaction to the US presidential debate: live

But here’s why it was also a vote loser. For a start, Twitter immediately lit up with examples of how the US Army does still use horses and bayonets (horses were used during the invasion of Afghanistan). More importantly, this was one example of many in which the President insulted, patronised and mocked his opponent rather than put across a constructive argument. His performance was rude and unpresidential. Obama seemed to have a touch of the Bidens, wriggling about in his chair, waving his hands dismissively and always – always – smirking in Romney’s direction. By contrast, Romney sucked up the abuse and retained a rigid poker face all night. He looked like a Commander in Chief; Obama looked like a lawyer. Who would you rather vote for?

Seton Motley, Newsbusters: Media Debate Fail: Obama, the Auto Bailout and China:

In their third Presidential debate analysis, the Jurassic Press Media last night and thus far this morning have failed utterly in their role as fact checker and record-corrector – at least when it comes to what President Barack Obama had to say.

As but one glaring example, there were the President’s absurd assertions regarding the auto bailout and China.

Here in large part is what the President last night had to say on the subject:

“If we had taken your advice Governor Romney about our auto industry, we’d be buying cars from China instead of selling cars to China.

“If we take your advice with respect to how we change our tax codes so that companies that earn profits overseas don’t pay U.S. taxes compared to companies here that are paying taxes. Now that’s estimated to create 800,000 jobs, the problem is they won’t be here, they’ll be in places like China.”

This is not the first time the President has made these claims.  It is not the first time the Press has taken him – utterly unexamined – at his word.

We won’t.  Let’s go piece by Presidential piece, and see what we find.

“If we had taken your advice Governor Romney about our auto industry, we’d be buying cars from China instead of selling cars to China.

There is so much wrong-ness packed into this one sentence.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/seton-motley/2012/10/23/media-debate-fail-obama-auto-bailout-and-china#ixzz2A8WnwBYP

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