Who Won The Presidential Debate? Obama Blames Bush, Romney Channels Reagan in His Closing Statement

Impact

Click to watch the third presidential debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama LIVE!!!

During the first debate on October 3rd, Mitt Romney decisively won. Then came the vice presidential debate, where a snickering and giggling Joe Biden ended up doing more harm than good to his ticket up against a cool and collected Paul Ryan. 

Last week, President Obama rallied, but was at best able to stalemate the growing Romney machine. Like his first performance, Mitt Romney was aggressive and had thorough command of all the data he needed to fight off Obama and a moderator that again gave the president more time.

Any good drama is composed of three parts, a beginning, middle and end. Now we're gearing up for Act III. Will a debate that focuses almost solely on foreign policy work in the favor of President Obama, or will Mitt Romney continue to punch through the flailing presidents defences? 

Up until recently, President Obama had always been given high marks by the public on foreign policy, which is why one would naturally expect a foreign policy debate between Romney and himself to be a gift to the embattled leader. However, recent polling after the attack in Benghazi has showed that the presidents approval on foreign policy has gone under 50% for the first time. 

It's all on the line as Romney attempts to solidfy his growing lead in the polls and the projected electoral count, and put the president away for good. 

PolicyMic will be covering the presidential debate live. For live updates, bookmark and refresh this page.

8:29 pm - We're just over a half hour away from the start of the third and final debate between President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney! Feel free to check out the livestream on Fox News if you need to watch the debate over the internet!

8:43 pm - 18 minutes! Batten down the hatches! Feel free to share this article with others!!

8:56 pm - 4 minutes to go!!!!  Are you ready to rumble? 

9:02 pm - They're shaking hands. You just know they hate each other. Oh man! A sitting down debate! I hate sitting down debates. People don't want to watch that, they want to see these two guys going at each other like a boxing match. That's why last weeks debate was so good!

9:05 pm - Romney goes off compartmentalizing again. Good opener. Very sharp.

9:12 pm – Romney fires two shots not across Obama’s bow, but straight through his hull. “Attacking me is not an agenda or a way to deal with the Middle East.” And then, he takes a shot at Obama’s Hot Mic comment with Putin…WOW!!!

9:15 pm – You can just FEEL Obama’s teeth grinding through the television screen.

9:18 pm – Obama is much more aggressive this time around, but it could be out of desperation. He lost the first debate badly, and he was not able to stop Romney in the second one. But a wounded creature is always the most dangerous kind…

9:21 pm – Even match so on. Both men came prepared. I hope to hell Schieffer does not think that’s all he has to ask on Libya!!

SORRY EVERYONE! THE SITE WENT DOWN TEMPORAIRLY, BUT IS NOW WORKING!!! BLOG ON!!

9:24 pm - This isn't the boxing match it wast week. This is mental chess. 

9:27 pm - Site is still slow - bear with me people. Romney right to bring up the economy. Sequestration would be a disaster.

9:30 pm - Romney smart to bring up the changes in the world over time, and even smarter to hit Obama for not helping out the green revolution.

9:32 pm - Obama hits Romney's plan for not balancing. Like his does.. #eyeroll

9:33 pm - Obama finds a way to blame Bush ONCE AGAIN!!!

9:35 pm - We cannot maintain a strong foreign policy of any kind with a weak economy. 

9:36 pm - Obama Kissing the A$$ of the teachers union.

9:39 pm - Thank god. Can't trash ObamaCare enough.

9:41 pm - Obama is more and more testy. He's tired of losing or being stalemated.

9:42 pm - Romney is great to hit that the Navy and Airforce are the smallest since 1917, etc etc. American people on a whole do not want a smaller military, even if it is still superior. 

9:44 pm - #ObamaPlaybook - When Obama gets snyde, you know he's either losing or very very unhappy. 

9:47 pm - Obama is trying sooooo hard to talk like a tough guy. He's not. He's very unhappy that he's been bleeding support for two and a half weeks. Romney would bleed personally for his BFF Bibi Netanyahu. He'll go a step further than Obama. 

9:49 pm - Obama doesn't want to tell you those sanctions went ahead over his objections...

9:51 pm - Obama talks tough and about standing locked-armed with Israel. I wonder what his friends Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi would say about that...

9:53 pm - Talks about Obama's apology tour. Those of us here in the Conservative Blogosphere called it the "We Suck 09 Tour."

9:56 pm - "We're four years closer to a Nuclear Iran." Awesome. Hit's the apology tour again. 

Don't forget that Obama bowed. Many times...

Or are we supposed to believe he was looking for a contact lens?

9:58 pm - Mr. President, you visited Israel as a candidate. Why not when you were president?

10:01 pm - I'm glad I'm a commentator, and not an anchor. That way, I don't have to say what a (BLEEP) I think the president is. 

10:03 pm - Schieffer, like the past three moderators, is giving the Democrat more time. That's twice he didn't let Romney respond to a big attack. However, he did allow Obama to hit back each time. Oh well, a handicapp conservatives have had to learn to live with. 

10:08 pm - Obama looks terrible when he attacks, but confident when he just talks policy. Romney looks confident. The most obvious thing about this entire debate is how much these two men detest each other. 

10:11 pm - The moderator just said "Drones." Ron Paul just had a heart attack. 

10:13 pm - Romney's strong suit is the economy, not foreign policy. Fortunately, Obama has no strong suit. The only thing Romney has to do during this debate is dance and look presidential. He's doing that. Obama's not making him stutter, stammer or fumble. When you're ahead on points so far in the overall fight (as Romney is) it's okay to let your opponent punch themselves out.

10:15 pm - I'd love to see how many times Obama says I, Me, My, Mine... Op! We're talking about China. Let's see how long until Obama makes a Bain Capital cheap shot. However - he did just blame Bush again! Take a shot!

10:17 pm - Romney gets to hit on China now. He's been great on China for a year. Romney can nail Obama because he didn't mention currency manipulation by the Chinese gov't. 

10:19 pm - Thank you Romney. That's what I wanted.

10:20 pm - NICE!!! Romney hits how much we buy vs how much the Chinese buy and counterfit goods. NICE!!!! And there's the Obama's cheap shot. Oh lordy...Please god, let Romney have time to respond to that Horses***.

10:25 pm - Actually, Mr. President, you are wrong. Romney did not say that

http://mittromneycentral.com/op-eds/let-detroit-go-bankrupt/

10:27 pm - "We cannot go back to the same policies..." Oh god...there you go again. Now Mitt hits him on the economy. Stupid of Obama to leave that door open. Mitt knows this stuff cold. 

10:29 pm - Thank you Jesus, Romney get's to go second during the closing statements. This debate was pretty even. Romney started out slow, Obama started out strong. Romney rallied and came on strong during the second half. Obama's closing statement is blame Bush, Class warfare, Romney = Bush, I hate Bush, remember people, you hate Bush right? More trees, less Bush?

10:33 pm - Romney's closing statement is almost Reagan-esq. Obama tried to make it a choice, Romney's closing statement is making it a referendum on Obama once again. He is hitting on the economy. Even though this is the FP debate, this is where he needs to be. This is the message. People care much more about the economy than on Foreign Policy.

His message is strong, confident, flag waving. This is 'a shining city on a hill for 2012.' Nicely done. 

Final score: Obama 4, Romney 5. If Obama hadn't taken the bait and kept steering it to foreign policy, he would have won more. Romney got him upset a few times. All Romney needed to do was dance and look presidential, and he did it.