Everyone always has advice for the President. Sure. I'm a White House advisor, too -- in my mind.
But if I really had the President's ear to offer lines of attack and argument for the third-and-last debate, how would I advise him?
Here's one: A vote for Gov. Romney is a vote for the team that took us to war in Iraq. Just look at his campaign advisors, the people shaping his foreign policy -- they're the Bush-Cheney A-team, and now they're itching for war with Iran when it was their Iraq policy that helped boost Iran's influence in the region. Iraq was a war of choice, and it cost a lot of lives and treasure. It was easier to start than it was to end -- I know, because I brought our troops home. We've had enough war mongering from the other team. My approach is different...
Another example below the orange flourish -- and an invitation for you to add your idea. Let's make a community list. If only for fun.
Another of my wished-for Obama lines: My fellow Americans -- I am with our leaders in the Pentagon. I trust their advice, but it's a president's job to lead our military. I've put forward a Pentagon budget that reflects the Joint Chiefs' thinking on what equipment and troop levels we need into the future, priorities that reflect what we might call a 'build down' from war. It will keep us strong while also cutting obsolete weapons and boondoggles, and leave us better positioned for future realities, as our top military thinkers envision them. My opponent, on the other hand, wants to buy weapons and spend money on a Cold-War style military that the Pentagon doesn't think we need and doesn't even want. That is neither a wise nor a fiscally sound approach. Maybe his advisers haven't heard -- the Cold War is over! It sounds more like they're taking advice from defense contractors than the top Pentagon brass. That's wrong.
OK -- enough from me.
Now it's your turn to put words in the President's mouth. Have fun. Keep it to a short paragraph or less.
See you at the debate!