Who Won the Presidential Debate: Obama and His Experience Trump the Mitt Romney Sound Bites

Impact
BySarah Morgan

Well folks, it has finally come to an end. The final presidential debate of the 2012 cycle took place last night in Boca Raton, Florida. During a cycle that has seen more than its fair share of these highly sensationalized showdowns (let's not forget the Republican Primary — my last count was at least 10 debates), I think we are all pretty greatful that this part of the election is over.

But who was the champion? According to a CBS News' instant poll and much of the Twitterverse (or at least, my feed) Obama came out the clear winner last night.

Romney was essentially regurtitating sound bites the entire evening while Obama came back at him with cold, hard experience. Whatever knowledge or "plan" it sounded like Romney had was clearly just him reciting what his foreign policy advisors had been drilling into his head in preparation for the debates.

As an international relations major the most infuriating moment of the debate, by far, was when Mitt Romney actually repeated to viewers that Obama had gone on an "apology tour" for America. I'm pretty sure that we call that DIPLOMACY. In fact, the general consensus among fact checkers is that this "apology tour" never actually occurred. My favorite write up on this was written by Glenn Kessler in The Washington Post early last year.

The only times I agreed with Romney were when he agreed with the president on his policies, which oddly enough, happened more than a few times to go unnoticed by everyone watching.

But at the end of the day, foreign policy is not a topic that most voters during this cycle care very much about. However, foreign policy is a crucial part of any president's job, especially when you're the President of the United States. Romney proved that he has the ability to learn information and retain it well, but trust him when the U.S. is facing an international crisis? No way.