Free Republic

PPP (D) Tracking Poll: R 49%, 0, 47% [+6% Democrat, 55% women] This covers 10-20 to 10-22, but prior to debate

Excerpt: President Obama: . . . And if we're not making investments in education and basic research, which is not something that the private sector is doing at a sufficient pace right now and has never done, then we will lose the (inaudible) in things like clean energy technology. End of excerpt.

Time's Mark Halperin is The Narrative and he's scoring the debate a tie -- giving both men a B+. But it's what Halperin writes  that should worry Obama fans.   Obama: Tried all evening to tease out for America the patent contradictions he sees starkly in Romney’s past statements, but could not cast them in sharp enough relief to break through for the non-expert viewer. Efforts to make Romney seem unpresidential and unprepared failed to rattle his opponent, but did produce a series of rhetorical moments that will get television replays. Still haunted by his Denver failure, he stayed hyped...

During Monday evening’s final presidential debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, the president said he and his administration didn’t offer the so-called budget “sequester” as a tool to cut the military budget, despite reports alleging he did.“The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed,” Obama said during the debate in Boca Raton, Fla. “It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen.”That directly contradicts a 2012 book from investigative journalist Bob Woodward — the Washington Post editor who, with Carl Bernstein, took down President Richard Nixon over the 1970s-era Watergate scandal. “Then-OMB Director Jack Lew, now the...

<p>Translated: Mitt, you’re an idiot for counting ships. You apparently don’t realize that technology doesn’t require ships anymore (even though the Navy says they require 313, apparently Obama knows better).</p> <p>This impending reality clearly angered Obama. His remarks suggested, “I am in charge here and I won’t allow sequestration to happen.” It’s as though he thinks he gets to decide this question, which he doesn’t. Sequestration will happen unless a miracle occurs and Congress passes a budget– which, by the way, it hasn’t been able to during the entire Obama presidency.</p>

Obama is killing Romney here... let's do something about it.

First, speaking as the son of a Marine Corps officer and the brother of a Navy officer, I think Obama’s “horses and bayonets” wisecrack wasn’t his biggest miscalculation. All that did was lose him the military vote in the Norfolk area and thus, most likely, the state of Virginia. Rather, it was the weird way he kept conflating the war-fighting purpose of the military with “taking care” of the veterans after they come home. Military personnel deeply resent the implication, so earnestly peddled by the bed-wetting civilians at the New York Times, among others, that returning vets are just a...

The Green party's presidential candidate has called Barack Obama a "climate denier" for failing to talk about climate change during the elections. On the eve of the third and final presidential debate, the Green party's Jill Stein said Obama's failure to speak out about environmental concerns made him virtually identical to Republicans who deny the human causes of global warming. The absence of climate change from the elections, after a year of record temperatures, wildfires and drought, has hugely frustrated environmental campaigners. Obama and Mitt Romney, who has expressed doubt about the human causes of climate change and the viability...

Following the conclusion of Monday night’s final presidential debate, MSNBC’s hosts noted that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney had distanced himself from his positions as a primary candidate. Chris Matthews called this a political calculation and said that the Republican party has a greater hatred of Barack Obama than they do of Al Qaeda. RELATED: NY Times Buries The Lede: Anderson Cooper’s Ratings Surge At 8PM“Mitt Romney committed to the idea, without clarification, that troops should be removed in 2014,” said Rachel Maddow referring to Afghanistan. She said Romney made significant news this morning when he reversed his position on...

If you had been on an extended vacation for the past four years, you would have been forgiven for watching this debate and thinking you were viewing a President Mitt Romney being challenged by a pretender called Barack Obama. It's not that Obama did not have command of foreign policy issues or did not make some telling points against an opponent who was vague at times and occasionally uncertain. But Obama clearly came into the debate believing he had to score points and change the dynamic of the race. In short, Obama started the 90 minutes here in Boca Raton,...

In a debate about who should be commander-in-chief, Mitt Romney was just as much in command as the man in the job now. President Obama came into the debate with a record to boast of, and he used it to play offense. He poked and prodded Romney, even tried to bayonet him at one point, and sought to lecture his opponent on what it’s like actually to be president. The president accomplished what he needed to, particularly by taking the role of the aggressor that his base has wanted so desperately this debate season. But Romney also had a strong...

It is unbelievable that Mitt Romney did not answer a direct question teed up for him by the moderator Bob Schieffer - regarding the question of whether Obama mislead the American people over the unmitigated debacle and possible treason that was Benghazi. He gave Romney an open end question, inviting him to address the Libya debacle. Romney chose to ignore the question and instead recite a monologue that sounded like a canned political speech. Romney then allowed Obama to interrupt him and take over the question that was actually posed to himself - not Obama. It became evident six minutes...

Earlier this evening in the Third Presidential Debate Mitt Romney raised legitimate concerns about the current and shrinking size of the United States Navy. The President responded snarkily by saying that size does not matter because we have these these "things" called Carriers that "planes can land on" and these "things" that go underwater. This pathetic attempt at rebuttal by Obama is quite simple. The first submarine commissioned by the United States Navy was "USS Holland (SS-1)" on October 12, 1900. The first Aircraft Carrier commissioned by the United States Navy was the USS Langley (CV-1) on March 20, 1922. ...

​​​​​According to Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling institution, 53% of viewers thought Barack Obama won tonight’s third debate on foreign policy; 42% thought Romney won. Going in, 51% were planning to vote for Obama, as opposed to 45% for Romney. Surprisingly, Obama led Romney by a mere 51% to 47% margin on the issue of foreign policy among those Democratic-leaning voters. But among independents, the numbers moved heavily toward Romney. While 55% of independents said Obama won the debate, a full 48% of the independents said they were less likely to vote Obama after the debate. 47% of independents...

Romney was ahead, last time I checked, but only 80 votes at that point.

Covering a lot of ground, from Libya and Syria to Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the third presidential debate was alternately frustrating, boring, and repetitive. Mitt Romney grew stronger throughout the debate, while the President grew weaker. Romney's closing statement struck the exact right note of working in a bi-partisan manner to "carry the torch" of freedom back to America in the future. Romney also did something the President neglected to do: He asked for the job. The President may have hurt himself with a few snarky comments early in the debate with comments like, "I'm glad you recognize Al Qaeda...

Just a prayer for tonight's debate.

Tonight is the third and final debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, one that Democrats initially thought might close the deal with voters --- but now looks more like a minefield than ever. They may not need to worry --- or for that matter, hope --- because while the news has focused on the topic of tonight's event, foreign policy, voters appear more focused than ever on the economy and jobs. Furthermore, there's probably not a lot of upside for either candidate.Greg Sargent outlines the strategy as he sees it from the Left: Throughout this campaign, Obama has frequently...

CBS newsman Bob Schieffer will host the third debate tonight between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.The first two debates prompted outrage from pro-life conservatives over their bias — from biased questions and Romney twice having less time to talk during the debate to the moderator interrupting Romney more or letting Obama get the last word in more often.Voters expecting a more fair and impartial debate this time around will be sorely disappointed — although it might be for the better that the debate is primarily expected to be focused on foreign policy issues. Schieffer made it clear earlier this...

GALLUP MONDAY: R 51% O 45%... FOREIGN POLICY