Romney can’t lose the foreign policy one because he has no experience. Obama will have to stay on defense all night. His only success was Osama and possibly pulling out of Iraq.
Everything has been going badly for Obama overseas.
He pulled out of Iraq on the original timeline using the Bush strategy that his party had predetermined was a failure. Then he instituted a version of the same strategy in Afghanistan and it has been a failure. The marked difference between the two campaigns is the relative importance of the cities in each nation and how they are tied (or not tied) to overall security. Additionally the ROE in Afghanistan has gotten really bad.
The Iraq withdrawal plan was all in place before he ever took office. He should get no credit for Iraq, not that that would stop him form gloating over it.
My concern for the foreign policy debate is the Iran conundrum. What do we do about Iran’s nuclear weapons program? The Iranians are going to build a bomb unless we stop them, and it appears that only an act of war will do it. So either we are willing to go to war with Iran, or we are willing to let them have their bombs. I don’t see a way to have our cake and eat it too.
So, are we willing to go to war over this issue or not? If Romney says yes, he gets branded a war-monger and I seriously doubt that the American public is willing go up the hill with him. If he says “let’s do really strong diplomacy” he looks weak and 0bama can say “that’s what I’m already doing.”
I really hope Romney and his advisers can figure out a way out of this box.