Who Won the Debate: Foreign Policy Hawks

Tonight, President Obama and Governor Romney will face each other in the final debate of this election season. While the first two focused on a number of huge national issues (including the economy), this debate will focus on economic policy. In a recent Cato Institute Podcast, Gene Healey said that both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama will take unprecedented executive power, but that Romney is being honest about his desire to take executive power while Obama campaigned on and won in part because of his opposition to unapproved executive power. Civil libertarians and constitutional conservatives can take solace in the fact that if Obama is defeated by Romney that the left will once again stand up to unconstitutional power grabs by the president.

We know that Obama will be an affront to civil liberties and the constitution, but Mitt Romney has only promised that he would be. It will be interesting to see how they try to position themselves on what is a secondary issue in this election. What will be more interesting is how Romney attempts to relate foreign policy and military spending to the economy. At the end of the most recent debate, Romney repeatedly insisted that “Government does not create jobs.” Contrary to that, he has repeatedly insisted that cutting defense spending will cause us to lose jobs. While there are arguments for retaining high levels of defense spending, “creating jobs” is not one of them. Government spending, even in sectors you like, does not create jobs. Romney got it right at the end of the last debate, but the jury is still out on whether he can be consistent with his diagnosis of government spending.

PolicyMic will be covering the final presidential debate in it's entirety. Check back here for all the latest analysis, polls, gaffes, news, zingers, thrills and spills. Bookmark and refresh this page for the most recent updates.

Updates:

9:21: Trade is the best way to make another nation a friend, yet both candidates have expressed support for trade sanctions.

9:20: It's clear that neither candidate has any qualms about meddling with the internal affairs of non-threatening nations

9:14: I'm watching this in a room full of College Republicans and the two things Romney said about Russia were applause lines

9:12: OH SNAP

9:11: Foreign aid is such a great idea that the entire Republican Party stands behind Romney's stance on its necessity

9:10: Obama saying Romney is "All over the place" isn't nearly as memorable as Ted Kennedy's "multiple choice" line 

9:10: I fell like this whole receiving a phone call at 3am thing was touched on during the 2008 Democratic Primaries

9:09: Is "we can't kill our way out of it" the foreign policy version of "we can't spend our way out of it?"

9:08: I think he might be implying that there can be unintended consequences of arming rebels.

9:06: I'm giving an over/under on first "YouTube" mention at 4 minutes.

9:06: Because the day to day life of so many voters is impacted by what happens in the Middle East

9:02: Bold predictions: Romney will present himself as almost identical to Obama. Obama will pretend the last 4 years haven't happened. If Romney doesn't say YouTube, he will have lost.