Horses. Bayonets. Whoppers. Since when did the President of the United States become a sassy little girl?
While watching the third and final presidential debate, I couldn’t help but wonder what, exactly, has happened to the respected president who has led our country for the past four years? In the formal debate Monday, President Barack Obama seemed to lose his cool.
“The 1980’s called, they want their [foreign] policies back.”
“I know you haven’t ever been in a position to execute foreign policy.”
And of course my personal favorite, “[Governor Romney] has the social policies of the 1950s,” are just a sampling of the memorable punch lines that the President turned in, all of which he had clearly delivered many times in practice.
In response, and in complete antithesis to his usual character, incumbent Mitt Romney appeared to keep his cool.
“Attacking me is not foreign policy,” Romney coolly proclaimed after undergoing one too many of the infamously dubbed “zingers.”
In the final two weeks of the presidential election, one would think the nominees would at least have their personalities down. To copy Obama’s newfound use of alliteration, the candidates should already have figured out if they want to be known as cool and collected or sardonic and snarky.
Unfortunately, only in America can personalities come and go while the numbers remain the same, which is exactly what they have done.
The majority of polls have Obama and Romney in practically a dead heat, which is hard to believe after three debates where the candidates have clearly differed on every important issue. In response to the debate Monday night, 53 percent of swing state respondents to a PPP Poll reported that they felt Obama won the debate, while 45 percent believed Romney had won. These swing voters in states such as Ohio are the ones who are ultimately going to decide the election; currently, Obama has a miniscule lead in in swing voters, but such an intangible number hardly means anything in such a volatile election.
The debate polling came as a surprise to me. Yes, Obama reminded us (many, many times) that he has already been Commander-in-Chief and that Romney lacks foreign policy experience, but he also scaled the question of his actions regarding Libya by turning once again to Iraq and Osama bin Laden. He also continued to bring Romney down rather than build himself up, a strategy that has proven to “turn off” the ever-important group of young female voters. Perhaps the President should focus less on the zingers and more on telling the public about his own ideas for the future.
Romney, on the other hand, earned his stripes in this debate. He tried to make us all forget about his binders by giving us some actual details of his plans for strengthening the economy and decreasing our debt, which he cited as the biggest threat to national security. Unfortunately, he seems unable to avoid coming off as condescending. While Obama was doing his best to destroy his presidential credibility, Romney ultimately did not succeed in creating his own presidential persona.
Then again, he was competing against the man who managed to say, with a completely straight face, the following: “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. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them."
Well said, Mr. President, well said. You really showed your Twitter followers that you are always available to give them a new trending hashtag. And Mitt? Your sour face, which continued to be prevalent throughout the rest of the debate, was priceless, albeit extremely unpresidential.
Perhaps this has become more of a blog on my dissatisfaction with our candidates. All political beliefs aside, neither man appears ready to take (or retake) control of our country come January. All each candidate had to do was prove that they knew something about foreign policy (because in reality most Americans know very little), and convince the country that their character was at least somewhat deserving of the presidency.
It didn’t happen. And with the polls as close as they are and the clock counting down, the side that figures out how to eliminate the superfluous bantering and get down to business is the side that will win. As much as I love political banter and Twitter hashtags, America ultimately wants progress, not bayonets.
