- Title: USA/FILE: After Libya misfire, pressure on Romney in foreign policy debate
- Date: 21st October 2012
- Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (RECENT) (VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS) VARIOUS OF REBELS ON STREET
- Embargoed: 5th November 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iran, Islamic Republic of, Usa, China
- City:
- Country: Usa China Iran, Islamic Republic of
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA7KRXQCX4G9H2CO89ENW6KLV6Z
- Story Text: Following a feisty face off in the second debate, U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney head into their third and final debate to pick up where they left off - Libya and the Obama administration's handling of the Benghazi consulate attack.
When President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney face off on Monday (October 22) in their third and final debate in Boca Raton, Florida, it will be the Republican challenger's last best chance to recover from his botched "Libya moment" and exploit vulnerabilities in his opponent's foreign policy record.
Romney's missteps in criticizing Obama's handling of a deadly September 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi - the focus of a vividly testy exchange in the previous debate - have complicated his broader strategy of trying to cast the president as a weak steward of American power abroad.
Analysts say Romney must use the final debate to press his point, drowned out in the last face off, that the recent wave of anti-American violence in Libya and other parts of the Middle East shows Obama's foreign policy is unraveling. His challenge will be to appear presidential standing next to the Commander-in-Chief
"If he will knock the president off this pedestal, the one that he essentially built for himself on Libya, it's the governor's greatest opportunity. He can show there is weakness in Obama foreign policy and he can exploit that and if he can do it in an effective way that doesn't look like he's politicizing the issue but rather that he's critiquing an area of decision making where he feels the president failed then its probably his only path to success in this debate," said John Hudak, a governance studies fellow at the Brookings Institution.
The problem for Romney is that in honing in on Obama's trouble spots, he risks exposing his own weaknesses and possibly giving Obama another opportunity to go on the offensive. At a recent white-tie charity dinner in New York Obama jokingly reminded attendees of Romney's trips to Europe and the Middle East where he was criticized in the media for perceived gaffes, including his inadvertent insult of the organizers of the London Olympics.
"Perhaps some of you guys remember, after my foreign trip in 2008, I was attacked as a celebrity because I was so popular with my allies overseas. I have to say I am impressed with how Governor Romney has avoided that problem," Obama told guests at the annual Al Smith dinner.
Obama can score points by painting Romney as a foreign policy novice who's not prepared to lead on the world stage.
"For Governor Romney foreign policy is going to be the hardest area for him to fake it. This is the most difficult area for someone who doesn't deal with these issues everyday and if President Obama can pull back that curtain and say this man is not ready for the job, he hasn't prepared, he doesn't know the issues well enough, that's damning for a challenger," Hudak said.
As former governor of Massachusetts and an ex-businessman, Romney's best chance is to steer the foreign policy debate into an area he's most comfortable - trade and economy.
Romney has said that if he wins the November election he would declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office, arguing that China's trade and currency policies are harming U.S. workers and businesses.
Obama has criticized Romney for "talking tough" on China but his administration, like its Republican predecessor, has stopped short of labeling China a currency manipulator.
Romney can also use foreign policy issues to shift the spotlight back to economic issues and unemployment in the United States.
"Regular American voters, particularly people with blue-collared jobs and people who have struggled even during the recovery, they see China, not just as a geopolitical threat. They really see China as an economic threat and this rhetoric can really connect to the bread and butter of voters in states like Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin. All of the key swing states, swing voters within those states are going to respond to the China issue and president Obama can lay out his achievements in terms of filing World Trade Organizations complaints against China but what remains is that voters are still weary of China and they haven't made much progress made. It presents a real opportunity for Romney if he continues the rhetoric and he uses it against the president," Hudak said.
For both Obama and Romney, the debate offers up a final opportunity to showcase their individual leadership styles when dealing with diplomatic issues.
The Obama campaign has accused Romney of Bush-era saber-rattling rhetoric and cast him as unfit to be commander-in-chief because of his gaffe-filled overseas trip in July and his much-criticized immediate reaction to the Libyan attack. Romney blasted Obama's actions before it was clear that Stevens had been killed in Benghazi and was accused of injecting politics into a national tragedy.
Romney has assailed Obama's foreign policy as passive and has accused him of failing to assertively use U.S. diplomacy to shape events in Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Russia and elsewhere - it's an approach that risks alienating voters, analysts say.
"Americans are tired of war, they are tired of Bush-era foreign policy. They don't want to see a president who's passive but I don't think they have in their minds that President Obama is passive in foreign policy. I think they think of him as effective," Hudak said.
Outside the White House, many voters said they were tuning into the debate because they had unanswered questions on the Benghazi attack.
"What I'd like to hear from Obama is the truth. For several weeks he came out and was trying to hide behind some facts and I am really concerned especially because he attacked our first amendment right to freedom of speech with people being able to actually express themselves through videos and movies and he hid behind that rather than the actual truth of what happened in the terrorist attack," said Scott Mesker.
"Right now obviously there has been a lot of debate about the entire situation in Libya and I think the idea of transparency is very important," said Sabrina Marzaro.
One voter said he was hoping Romney would rein in his criticism of the Obama administration's handling of Libya because it was counter-productive.
"I suspect that Romney will keep pounding on that which in the long run, from his standpoint, is probably a mistake." (Reporter asks, "Why?") Because I think he's going to come across as being more interested in becoming elected than supporting the interests of his country overseas."
The 90-minute debate will be divided into six segments: America's role in the world; the war in Afghanistan; Israel and Iran; the changing Middle East; terrorism; and China's rise.
Critics have accused Romney of relying on generalities and platitudes - he has hearkened back to Ronald Reagan's "peace through strength" doctrine - and he could be put on the spot if he resists providing specifics.
Romney has promised to tighten the screws over Iran's nuclear program, accused Obama of "leading from behind" as Syria's civil war expands, and accused Obama of a politically timed exit from the unpopular Afghanistan war.
But in each case, critics say, he has not detailed alternatives from Obama's policies.
Obama and Romney are tied at 47 percent support each among likely voters with just over two weeks to go before the U.S. presidential election, a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday (October 21) said.
The nationwide poll, which was conducted after last Monday's (October 15) presidential debate, reinforced the perception of the race as a cliffhanger. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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