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"What does Russia have on Trump?", asks Nancy Pelosi. The better question is, what did Putin and Rouhani have on obama? It's June of 2001. George W. Bush is President. Bush has a meeting with Vladimir Putin and later said"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. "I was able to get a sense of his soul. "He's a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that's the beginning...

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: Martha, let's keep our eye on the ball. The reason I've been in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq 20 times — I've been up in the Kunar — I've been throughout that whole country, mostly in a helicopter and sometimes in a vehicle. The fact is we went there for one reason: to get those people who killed Americans, al-Qaida. We've decimated al-Qaida central. We have eliminated Osama bin Laden. That was our purpose. And in fact, in the meantime, what we said we would do, we would help train the Afghan military. It's their responsibility...

Romney’s Mona Lisa smile The Italians have words for it; the meaning of that famous smile. The tight lips with the ‘giocondo’ smirk of self-amusement. The ‘sfumato’ smile of blurry ambiguity leaving all to the imagination. But there was little left to the imagination in the Mona Lisa smile of Mitt Romney. It was everywhere in that final debate; that tight smile and warm eyes. The face that never wavered. It was a constant reflection into his opponent’s rage. It softly deflected the opposing aspirant’s mean eyes darting the fiery embers of spent dark coal. The gentle face absorbed the...

On October 22 voters tuned into a presidential debate expecting a serious discussion of foreign policy issues. Apparently President Barack Obama didn't understand that fact or didn't care. Or perhaps, he decided to use the show to audition for a new career on Saturday Night Live. Obama responded to a statement by Mitt Romney about the navy being smaller than in 1916 by telling what some considered a joke instead of attempting to explain why he thinks the United States doesn't need a larger navy. "But I think Governor Romney maybe hasn't spent enough time looking at how our military...

Barring a major November surprise or other election-shaking event, I believe that Mitt Romney will be the next President of the United States of America. I can draw this conclusion from the confluence of a number of indicators that seem to be coming together under the broad rubric of "Mittmentum" and are suggesting not just a Romney victory, but a fairly substantial one at that. For instance, there is the fact of Romney's large and steadily expanding lead among independent voters, who have swung decisively away from Obama, compared to his lead among them in 2008. Then, you have the...

Joe Biden was forewarned. When he did a walk-through at the site of his debate with Paul Ryan, he asked if there might be double screens when the debate was broadcast. Yes, indeed, he was told, though it would be up to each TV network and cable channel whether to show both candidates at once on a split screen. Biden may have ignored how he might appear on one screen while Ryan was speaking on the other. Or he may have purposely run the gamut of disdain from mockery to disgust as he listened to Ryan. Either way, he played...

"Among voters who watched the debates, 49% say Romney was the winner. Forty-one percent (41%) think President Obama came out on top. Four years ago, 47% of voters said Obama was the overall winner of the three dates, while 33% thought Republican nominee John McCain had been victorious. Republicans this year are a bit more confident in their nominee’s performance than Democrats are: 84% of GOP voters who watched the debates think Romney was the overall winner, compared to 78% of Democrats who feel Obama was the champ. Among voters not affiliated with either of the major parties, the GOP...

President Obama’s quip about “horses and bayonets” may have been the most memorable sound bite from the third presidential debate, but was it true? The comment came after Mitt Romney asserted that “our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917,” because it has fewer ships. Fact-checkers have determined that statement was false, but Obama took the bait anyway.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — With a last aggressive debate performance behind him and 14 grueling days ahead, President Obama is now facing what he worked so hard to avoid: a neck-and-neck race with a challenger gaining ground when it matters most.

Condescending debate outburst exposes weak defense strategy Note to President Obama: Stop pretending you’re a military genius. “Commander in chief” is simply a title, not a skill set. In Monday night’s foreign policy debate, Mr. Obama mocked Republican challenger Mitt Romney for daring to discuss the dangerous diminution of American naval assets to levels of a century ago. “Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed,” said Mr. Obama. “We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. And so...

Via Mediaite. I take it the defense here will be that they weren’t rooting for Obama, just grooving on a righteous zinger expertly dealt even though it was incorrect on the merits. But maybe I’m wrong; maybe there’ll be no defense. The media’s gotten more forthright about its biases and shortcomings over the past 10 years thanks to the endless watchdogging online, so there’s no sense grasping for excuses. Why bother? Everyone knows the score. This isn’t the first time reporters have been caught rooting publicly against a Republican, either. The Seattle Times gave bloggers a week of laughs five...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: To the audio sound bites! This morning on CBS This Morning, I have a portion here of National Correspondent Dean Reynolds' report on a panel of undecided Ohio voters who watched last night's debate and what they got from it. Now, you can't see it, obviously. This is radio. But Norah O'Donnell's face in this sound bite is priceless. These people cannot believe what they are hearing. What we have here is an undecided Ohio voter on this panel, Norah O'Donnell and the cohost Charlie Rose. And they start off here with Dean Reynolds, who is a...

Guess who was telling the truth? Here’s the transcript: ROMNEY: I just want to take one of those points, again, attacking me as not talking about an agenda for — for getting more trade and opening up more jobs in this country. But the president mentioned the auto industry and that somehow I would be in favor of jobs being elsewhere. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m a son of Detroit. I was born in Detroit. My dad was head of a car company. I like American cars. And I would do nothing to hurt the U.S. auto...

Mitt Romney is not particularly new to gaffes but when it comes to one about the relationship between Syria and Iran, he has shown extraordinary courage in repeating it at least six times just in the past year. During last night's foreign policy debate, Romney said: "Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's their route to the sea."

Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell seem a little surprised by the results of this focus group conducted by CBS during last night’s debate, a group that consists of eight undecided voters in Ohio — a critical swing state for both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Conventional wisdom and spot polls showed Obama winning a narrow victory over Romney in last night’s debate, but that’s not how CBS’ independents saw it:

Conservative commentator and author Ann Coulter is known for her edgy proclamations and oft-times controversial take on the issues. Last night, while commenting about the final presidential debate, Coulter took to Twitter, where she seemingly used a less-than-complimentary word to describe either debate moderator Bob Schieffer or President Barack Obama — “retard." The pundit tweeted, ”I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard.” While she didn’t explicitly name the individual being targeted, based on the factors at play, one can only assume that it was either Obama or Schieffer. As of Tuesday morning, the...

President Barack Obama has offended the bayonet community ... TMZ has learned. TMZ spoke with multiple people in the bayonet industry who tell us they were shocked and even offended when Obama brought up the weapon during last night's debate. FYI -- Obama was going after Romney when he said, "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." According to the official U.S. Marine Corps website, every Marine is STILL required to complete a bayonet...

October 23, 2012 Flagging an Issue By Charles Kesler My wife, the very shrewd Sally Pipes, penetrated to the heart of the debate in a single sentence tonight when, only about 15 minutes into the exchange, she observed: “Romney’s flag pin is much larger than Obama’s flag pin.”Indeed, it was, as I confirmed in the next split screen of the candidates.Ever since the 1960s, liberals have been sensitive about the dimensions of their patriotism, and here, on national television, in a debate over foreign policy, Obama had been clearly outmaneuvered. His fleet was noticeably smaller than the challenger’s. His bayonet...

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,...

Romney for President released a new television advertisement titled “Apology Tour.” After taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama went on an apology tour around the world. He even said that America had “dictated” to other nations. Last night Mitt Romney responded, “Mr. President, America doesn’t dictate to other nations; we have freed other nations from dictators.”