By: Allie B.
At the last presidential debate on Monday, both
candidates were clearly on edge. Then the topic of foreign policy came up, and
things proceeded to get even tenser. Both Romney and Obama went back and forth
basically bashing each other’s polices and ideas to try to make themselves look
better than the other. Mitt Romney started off accusing Obama of not protecting
the military from budget cuts, and letting al Qaeda to become more prominent in
over twelve countries. Of course, then the president responded by saying that “I know you haven’t been in a position to actually
execute foreign policy, but every time you’ve offered an opinion, you’ve been
wrong.” In response, Romney said “Attacking me is not an agenda.”
The attacks continued when Romney said that a reason
for increased military spending is that we don’t have as ships as we have in
the past, and Obama retorted "Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets.” He was
implying that over the years our needs have changed and he told Romney that
now, “We have these things called aircraft
carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater,
nuclear submarines.” Both men continued to
be brutal to each other for the rest of the night, constantly making
accusations and putting each other’s policies down.
However, even with all of these tense disputes, they
actually have some of the same ideas, but they show them differently. Both
Obama and Romney feel that we need to try to push the Muslim world toward
moderation, and come up with a new strategy of how to fend off extremism. Even
though they have the same ideas, they both find a way to argue about it. Romney
accused Obama of taking an “apology” tour through the Middle East to show
regret for past U.S actions. Of course Obama responded by saying “probably the
biggest whopper that’s been told during the course of this campaign.”
On the topic of Syria, both the president and Romney
stated said that they had a lot of differences between their policies. Then
they both told about their policies, and they were actually very similar. Both
want to help our allies such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and to try to get
weapons to the right places.
Another major shared idea is there stance on Israel.
Obama stated that he has and will always stand with Israel. In response Romney
stated,
"I want to underscore the same point the president made, which is that if
I'm president of the United States, when I'm president of the United States, we
will stand with Israel.” When the topic of drone warfare came up, Romney stated
that "I support that entirely and feel the president was right to up the
usage of that technology.” It’s interesting how with all of the arguments and
accusations some of the main ideas are still basically the same. Sometimes the
only difference between the candidates is how they would personally carry out
the plan, not what foreign policy needs to be made or what the overall goal is.
Works Cited
- Greitens, Eric. "Obama, Romney tangle on al Qaeda, foreign policy in final presidential debate - Washington Times." Washington Times - Politics, Breaking News, US and World News. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. <http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/22/obama-romney-tangle-al-qaeda-final-presidential-de/?page=3>.
- "Presidential debate foreign policy similar: Few differences on foreign policy - OrlandoSentinel.com." Orlando news, information, weather, hurricane coverage, sports, entertainment, restaurants, real estate, jobs, business, classifieds - OrlandoSentinel.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. <http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/os-ed-dana-milbank-102312-20121023,0,1414011.column>.
- "TRANSCRIPT: Presidential debate on foreign policy at Lynn University | Fox News." Fox News - Breaking News Updates | Latest News Headlines | Photos & News Videos. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/22/transcript-presidential-debate-on-foreign-policy-at-lynn-university/>.
I do think that this debate was very interesting. They both did agree on a lot of the same things, but like you said presented them differently. One thing they did not agree on was military spending. Romney did accuse Obama of not protecting the military because he wants budget cuts and Obama did say that we do not use horses and bayonets anymore. After the debate, a person currently in the military tweeted saying that they still do use horses and bayonets. I heard that Romney’s plan was to agree with Obama a lot, so that Barack could not paint him as something he’s not. I thought that this debate was the least effective of them all, because their ideas were the most similar out of all the debates. Romney’s goal was to keep talking about the bad economy throughout this debate! Great job Allie
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