President Obama came out aggressive in the final debate. While Romney came across more “big picture” and the buzz word in some news stations as “more presidential.” President Obama seemed to appear more of the competitor and constantly on the defensive. Obama’s strategy to come out strong, come out swinging caused some news pundits to criticize President Obama’s jabs as “small-minded.”
One of the more memorable comments Romney made was "Attacking me is not an agenda", which echoed the way Bill Clinton successfully answered a criticism regarding his ethics in the 2004, town hall debates against Bob Dole. Mitt Romney responded successfully in the same way Bill Clinton had:
"I could answer a lot of these things 'tit-for-tat', but I hope we can talk about what we are going to do in the future. No attack ever created a job or educated a child or helped a family make ends meet."
Bill Clinton-
This Clintonesque type of answer seemed to be the residing theme for Romney and very successful for those mostly concerned over real solutions to a strong American economy and a strong United States globally.
Romney’s strategy was to appear presidential and he attempted to clearly distinguish himself as different from George W. Bush. Mitt Romney stressed that he was not going to just go out and start wars. He wanted to ensure that people knew that he was not a “warmonger.”
On the issue on Libya, which still continues to be unanswered as far as how President Obama and his administration handled it. However, Romney did not get aggressive on the Libya question, which happened to be the very first question Bob Schieffer asked.
In this last debate, it seemed to me to be a tie as well as other pundits felt it was a tie. If one breaks down Romney's objective verses President Obama's objective. President Obama has been trailing in the polls so his only objective was to come out more aggressive. Romney had to appear presidential, likable towards the women voters, and knowledgeable enough in foreign policy and the economy. Romney seemed to meet his objective despite polls stating he did not win the debate.
According to a CNN poll, President Obama won on foreign policy by a slim margin at 48 percent while Mitt Romney at 40 percent. However, CNN tracked several reactions from their focus group regarding President Obama’s tone sounding often sarcastic. Although the debate was on foreign policy, domestic issues tied in with strengthening the United States economy in order to have a strong foreign policy came up.
A Fox focus group directly after the debates also showed that President Obama won by points, but when asked about what is the most important issue currently, the economy was unanimous. The Fox focus group voted Mitt Romney as more qualified with regards to the economy. The focus group also criticized President Obama’s tone and constant interruptions.
However, Romney still maintains a clear lead in polls regarding the economy. Romney did not go “tit-for-tat” and his tone was often echoing across Fox News and CNN pundits as seeming “more presidential.” Romney did not walk into the trap of appearing to look “reckless.” Interestingly enough, when it came to who is more likeable President Obama and Mitt Romney are almost tied with President Obama at 48 percent and Romney at 47 percent, according to CNN.
CNN did a final poll that asked who people would be likely to vote for Romney at 25 percent and President Obama at 24 percent, 50 percent did not respond or was undecided. Again, Mitt Romney still leads according to a recent Gallup poll on the economy at 52 percent on the federal budget deficit and 49 percent on the economy.
