President Barack Obama and
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney depart the stage after the
debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, on Monday, October
22. The third and final presidential debate focused on foreign policy. See the best photos from the second presidential debate.
The final presidential debate
- William Bennett: President Obama was aggressive in final debate, but it may be too late
- Bennett: Some pundits think Mitt Romney acted more presidential than Obama
- He says the electoral map is shrinking for Obama while expanding for Romney
- Bennett: Barring any surprises, Romney will likely keep the momentum
Editor's note: William
J. Bennett, a CNN contributor, is the author of "The Book of Man:
Readings on the Path to Manhood." He was U.S. secretary of education
from 1985 to 1988 and director of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy under President George H.W. Bush.
(CNN) -- All three presidential debates are now in
the books and the race to the White House is taking its final shape.
Looking back, the first debate was undoubtedly the watershed moment of
this campaign and the most powerful inflection point in the race to
date.
President Obama regained
some lost ground in the next two debates, including Monday night's
event, but the damage had already been done. Mitt Romney now carries the
momentum into the home stretch.
Like in the second debate, Obama came out Monday night more aggressive and more provocative.
He threw more punches and landed more punches, centering his attacks on
trying to characterize Romney's foreign policy as amateur and reckless.
But there was an air of desperation in his delivery. It was as if he
knew he needed to not just defeat Romney, but to destroy him. He fell
far short of that bar.
Opinion: Obama in command; Romney plays it safe
Obama was helped,
however, by Romney's peculiar pass on contesting Libya and the Benghazi
catastrophe while also not taking Obama to task for the timetable and
withdrawal from Afghanistan.
William Bennett
Romney's repeated
agreement with Obama on issues like drone strikes and keeping U.S.
forces out of Iran and Syria in any way may upset some conservatives.
But we are at a different time and place in the foreign policy psyche of
most Americans. The country is war-weary, wants the troops to come home
and doesn't want any form of intervention in another country. Romney
had to reassure voters that he was not interested in nation-building and
provoking or initiating foreign conflicts.
He accomplished that very
well. It was a different test for a different time for a Republican
candidate. He distanced himself from President George W. Bush and
offered his own vision for the Middle East. Or as he put it, the United States should "help the - the world of Islam and other parts of the world, reject this radical violent extremism."
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Perhaps foreshadowing the
last two weeks of the presidential race, Romney used the debate to move
to the center. He emphasized peace and diplomacy and avoided at all
costs any hint of sending U.S. forces to future wars. Romney also looked
and acted presidential. He had a steady, levelheaded confidence and
avoided any snarky, patronizing "horses and bayonets" moments.
Obama used the final
debate to go to the left and energize his base, attacking Romney at any
opportunity while throwing in comments about teachers and classroom size
-- a clear signal to his strong base with the teacher's union. Obama
offered little on his plans for a second term and spent much of the
debate hammering Romney.
Opinion: Was Obama too relentless with Romney?
Best moments from the final debate
Decoding body language from final debate
That may be why some
commentators think Romney acted and appeared more like the president and
Obama the challenger. One of the central facets of the Obama campaign
was to define Romney as an unacceptable candidate, which they did
relentlessly in states like Ohio. Yet, Romney's first debate performance
shattered that image. And through the rest of the debates, he proved
that he is not the man they said he was; he is not a warmonger or greedy
vulture capitalist.
Now, Obama is racing to
put the genie back in the bottle. The electoral map is shrinking for him
while expanding for Romney. Paul Begala recently admitted the Obama
campaign has given up on North Carolina. Meanwhile, GOP vice
presidential candidate Paul Ryan recently campaigned in Pennsylvania, a
state once thought to be totally out of the reach of Romney and Ryan.
According to RealClearPolitics.com's electoral map, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are now toss-up states and North Carolina is leaning Romney.
With the wind at this
back, Romney can now consolidate his resources in the most crucial
states -- Ohio, Virginia, Colorado and perhaps even Wisconsin and
Pennsylvania. And with the foreign policy debate in the rear view
mirror, he can get back to the economy -- his strongest issue and
advantage over the president.
Opinion: So, who's going to win?
In the latest WSJ/NBC poll
Romney has a six point advantage on which candidate is better at
dealing with the economy, a seven point lead on jobs and unemployment
and a whopping 13 point lead on fixing the deficit.
Romney has the momentum.
Barring any October surprise, he will likely keep the momentum. With
less than two weeks to go, it may matter less what Romney and Obama say
but where they say it. That will tell us all we need to know about how
the campaigns feel heading into the home stretch.
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