There were 2 Democrats on the stage this evening discussing foreign policy. Forget what Mitt Romney may have stated over and over during the primary season. This version of the most malleable man in America no longer advocated bombing Iran, but rather working on effective sanctions. He no longer objected to a timetable to leave Afghanistan but applauded one. The President's decision to go after Bin Laden without the consent of Pakistan, and to move heaven and earth to take out one man, was now found entirely justified. It was just 90 minutes of "yeah, what he just said."
Both men tried repeatedly to leave this forum and to head back to the economy where the votes are waiting. Both veered radically off topic to accentuate their differences on domestic policy. It was an accumulation of the best hits from the 2 earlier debates surfacing time and again.
So much was left untouched. Latin America, the European Union, global warming warranted not a mention. The focus was myopic, and while the Middle East turmoil certainly merited much attention, it is far from the only area of concern abroad.
What we witnessed in these debates was a Mr. Romney certain that his base will follow him no matter what he had to articulate to garner the undecideds. And hoping those who are undecided can find in one of his iterations someone they can believe in.
The President fought to recover from a dismal initial showing that left what once seemed a certain victory anything but that. He acquitted himself well in the last 2 skirmishes, giving those who support him reason to take solace. But he should have emphasized with even more force how he saved our economy from doom, and how much the Republican strategy thwarted his attempts to bring us even further forward.
What did I learn from all of this? How hard it is to pin down a moving target in 2 minutes. How little Mr. Romney finds himself accountable for all his misstatements and manipulation of the facts. How President Obama is not as invulnerable as I perceived, despite having the facts strongly on his side. And how glad I am that the debates are now over.