The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

FINAL 2012 DEBATE: ‘FOREIGNERS’

Posted on | October 22, 2012 | 45 Comments

UPDATE 11:09 p.m. ET: Well, I’ve got to write something longer than 140 characters for the American Spectator tomorrow, so I’ll leave you with this:

A couple of hours until deadline. I need more coffee.

UPDATE 10:33 p.m. ET: Really, I don’t hate foreigners. I just hate listening to debates about foreigners.

Did Obama win this one? If you like Obama (and hate America), yeah, it was a walkover. I’m watching the MSNBC after-show, BTW.

UPDATE 10:12 p.m. ET: Forgive me for not doing more original blog content during this debate. My 19-year-old son got in a car wreck (he’s OK, and it wasn’t his fault), which meant my wife had to go to the hospital, so I had to fix my own chicken nuggets for dinner. Anyway, he’s more snark from my Twitter feed:

When I’m ambassador to Vanuatu, I’ll never have to fix my own chicken nuggets. Or blog presidential debates, for that matter.

UPDATE 9:52 p.m. ET: More snark:

We’re somewhere near the halfway mark and, unless I’m mistaken, Obama’s losing the debate with his arrogant college-professor act, lecturing Americans as if we were a bunch of idiots.

UPDATE 9:40 p.m. ET: Some of my Twitter snark:

Why? Because I’m too lazy to write it twice, that’s why.

UPDATE 9:22 p.m. ET: Obama just boasted of his “steady, thoughtful leadership.” Ambassador Stevens could not be reached for comment.

UPDATE 9:18 p.m. ET: You see how hard Obama is straining to pretend that he’s an expert, and Mitt’s a clueless moron.

UPDATE 9:12 p.m. ET: Obama lays out the Howard Dean/Michael Moore/Roseanne Barr critique of Bush-era foreign policy. As if it were relevant.

UPDATE 9:10 p.m. ET: Mitt aims his words specifically at the “Muslim world” and “jihadists.” Specificity has been lacking lately, eh?

UPDATE 9:08 p.m. ET: Obama wants to “make friends around the world.” And … how’s that workin’ out for ya, buddy?

UPDATE 9:05 p.m. ET: First question: “What would you do about the crisis in Vanuatu?”

No, just kidding. It’s Libya, of course.

EXPECT FURTHER UPDATES . . .

* * * PREVIOUSLY (8:30 p.m. ET) * * *

Thank God, tonight’s debate is the last of this presidential campaign. Republicans endured 20 debates during the primary campaign, and we’re ready to stop debating and start stabbing out Chris Matthews’ eyeballs with sharp sticks voting.

So, yeah, I’ll be liveblogging, kinda, and also snarking it up on Twitter. I’m sure VodkaPundit will be drunkblogging. And our good friends at the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity will have a livestream at their Watchdog.Org site.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has highlights of Bob Schieffer’s most biased debate moments. I actually kind of like Schieffer, who is a liberal, but an old-fashioned kind of liberal, as opposed to these smart-alecky Ezra Klein types. The debate starts at 9 p.m. ET, and I’ll be watching the MSNBC post-debate show, because I’m still able to resist the stab-his-eyeballs-out urge toward Chris Matthews.

Just barely, though.

UPDATE II: Here’s the thing: I hate discussions of foreign policy.

Hate it. Because foreign policy is really simple, yet the intellectuals and “experts” get paid to pretend we need their advice. This is all just expert rent-seeking, you see.

There are two kinds of people in the world: Americans and foreigners. And there are three kinds of foreigners:

  1. Enemies who want to kill us;
  2. Allies who want to help us kill our enemies; and
  3. A bunch of irrelevant people who don’t really need a “policy.”

Simple, as I say, and once you’ve got the basics of who’s who figured out, everything else is obvious. Yet there are “specialists” with advanced degrees from prestigious universities who need jobs telling us what to think, and I get so tired of hearing these know-it-alls, I want to stab out their eyeballs with sharp sticks.

Category: Barack Obama, Debates, Election 2012, Foreigners, Mitt Romney

Comments

45 Responses to “FINAL 2012 DEBATE: ‘FOREIGNERS’”

  1. EBL
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:09 pm

    Can we declare Romney won?

  2. EBL
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:13 pm

    Obama is trying to remember Axelrod’s attack points.

  3. EBL
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:15 pm

    Mitt needs to shut Obama’s interruptions down.

  4. rosalie
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:18 pm

    Yes!

  5. fondatori
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:30 pm

    Didn’t Schieffer mention his wife in one of the Bush-Kerry debates? Didn’t he say something like ‘all three of us are married to strong women’?

  6. EBL
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:36 pm

    Jobs, jobs, jobs!

  7. Zilla of the Resistance
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:42 pm

    Bathhouse Barry looks awful. I wonder what drugs they have him on tonight? He looks jaundiced. he is very rude and interrupts a lot. Clearly his absentee parents and the various people he was passed around to never bothered to teach him manners. What a douche!

  8. librarygryffon
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:45 pm

    I broke down and turned it on, just in time to hear Ø trying to be snarky, and talking about “we have these things called air craft carriers”. While Romney looks like a parent waiting for his child to finish hoisting himself on his own petard.

  9. EBL
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:47 pm

    Israel is our BFF? I don’t think Bibi thinks so with O.

  10. JeffS
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:52 pm

    I like your foreign policy summary, Stacy, but you keep on misspelling “furriners”, dagnabit!

  11. EBL
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:58 pm

    Obama apology tour 2008!

  12. PGlenn
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:59 pm

    Obama = small and snippy.

  13. librarygryffon
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 9:59 pm

    As my 17yo headed up to bed I told her about Ø’s comments of the “we have these things..” and all she could do is roll her eyes.

    When teenagers think you’re stupid, you’ve got a big problem.

  14. PGlenn
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 10:14 pm

    Ha ha, Obama pronouncing Pakistan as if he were a Middle Eastern Studies professor was politically stupid, but he’s too much of a pompous ass to realize why that would the case.

  15. EBL
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 10:19 pm

    Mitt slap O now!

  16. Dianna Deeley
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 10:31 pm

    Pleased to read your son’s OK. The debate made Obama look weak, petty, and unintelligent.

  17. EBL
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 10:33 pm

    Mitt close this deal do we send Obama back to Hawaii

  18. Dianna Deeley
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 10:36 pm

    I need a picture of Michelle’s dress. What was she thinking?!

  19. EBL
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 10:46 pm

    Mitt won by showing he does not scare moderates.

  20. Charles
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 11:04 pm

    I like that you want to be an Ambassador to an irrelevant country that doesn’t need a policy.

  21. Final Debate Wrap Up – Romney Wins | The Lonely Conservative
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 11:14 pm

    […] President-Elect Willard M. Romney!— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) October 23, 2012He also live-blogged it, sort of.As I write this, Charles Krauthammer is praising Mitt Romney for his performance tonight, […]

  22. Peter Ingemi
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 11:21 pm

    OK Stacy time to forget the presidential race and start covering congressional races to see what kinds of Majorities president Romney will have in 2013

  23. Adjoran
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 11:53 pm

    Only the effete elite spell it out, “furners” being quite enough for the hoi polloi.

  24. Adjoran
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 11:55 pm

    and snide and unlikeable.

  25. Adjoran
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 11:56 pm

    So it was an accurate portrayal, then.

  26. Adjoran
    October 22nd, 2012 @ 11:57 pm

    Sorry, but Ann’s dress was also horrible. Those designers should be arrested, subjected to TSA screenings, and then shot or something.

  27. Adjoran
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 12:02 am

    Nice year-round climate is also a factor. And it’s not likely to have many emergency phone calls from DC – but how likely is it that some fedora-wearing guy who supported Santorum would get the post over a bundler?

  28. Adjoran
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 12:04 am

    Yes, especially the Senate races. This year should be a great opportunity because of the large number of 2006 freshman elected in red or purple states.

  29. Stacy McCain Blogs the Presidential Debate, so I Don’t Have To | Andrew J. Patrick
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 12:08 am

    […] The difference between blogging as a compulsive hobby and blogging for a living lies chiefly in how often you’re allowed to take off. Stacy McCain has a thousand things he’d rather be discussing than whatever insignificant quips and dull gotchas emerge from the latest round of Electoral Competitive Grandstanding, but there he is anyway, twittering away and hoping something of worth emerges. […]

  30. malclave
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 12:15 am

    Can Smitty, or another Navy type, fact check one of of Obama’s statements for me, please?
    “We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.”
    I thought subs were boats, not ships. and having ships go underwater is never a good thing.
    Yeah, I know Obama was just being snarky, but good snark gets the terminology right.

  31. Dianna Deeley
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 12:31 am

    Ann’s dress, while not what I would have chosen, at least was a flattering color and appropriate to a lady who is a grandmother. Michelle Obama’s dress would have been appropriate on an ingenue, but not on the 50-year-old mother of two that she is.

  32. Dianna Deeley
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 12:33 am

    I am told, with a singular lack of expression, that all ships are submarines. Once.

  33. Adjoran
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 12:52 am

    Huh? Is your grandmother really weird or something?

  34. Steve Skubinna
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 1:00 am

    Likewise, any ship can be a minesweeper. Once.

  35. Charles Krauthammer: It’s Unequivocal – Romney Won Debate (Video) « Nice Deb
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 2:31 am

    […] The Other McCain: FINAL 2012 DEBATE: ‘FOREIGNERS’: […]

  36. K-Bob
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 3:04 am

    I’m surprised he didn’t lecture Romney about the Army carrying guns.

    And note to The Lightbringer, AKA SCOAMFOTUS: they still use bayonets.

    Mitt let this crap slide in all three debates. I’m guessing it’s because they have enough data that tells them that 1) FP Debates are a real snooze fest for the average voter,
    2) Everyone knows Obama hates the military and doesn’t believe a single thing he says about a strong defense, or what the military needs.

    Otherwise he would point out that HALF of Obama’s claim that Mitt wants to raise spending has to do with Mitt not wanting to let Obama’s CUTS happen. That’s not an increase, it’s just the elimination of a folly.

    Also otherwise, Romney would point out that the reason the Joint Chiefs have not “asked” for more is because the CIC gave them the order to do with less, so they complied. Period. Most intelligent commanders would love to have more funding of the military, and even the Sec Def has pointed out the cuts are a bad idea.

  37. K-Bob
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 3:07 am

    Yeah! What ever happened to all the great things that 2010 was supposed to bring about regarding Republican election gains due to the increase in Republican leadership across many statehouses and Governor’s chairs?

  38. K-Bob
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 3:15 am

    Obama came into an FP debate with the usual, President’s home field advantage. Since the debate ended pretty much as a tie in terms of A) demeanor and promises (empty, in the SCOAMF’s case, but still), and also B) in terms of overall agreement on many things (again, meaningless in the SCOAMF’s case, because his record indicates otherwise)

    That means Obama essentially ceded his home field advantage to the guy who seemed much more steady and certain about his own record.

    I’d rather see a Romney who expects more out of people like Ahmadinejad and Castro, and is willing to use any and all forms of coercion to make it happen, so I wasn’t thrilled with his performance. But he still edged out Obama, because Obama’s words and rhetoric simply do not match his record, nor in many cases, reality.

  39. Wombat_socho
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 5:12 am

    You don’t believe in miracles?

  40. benning
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 7:25 am

    I know Obama had to practice that “horses and bayonets” line. I have my doubts he knows what a bayonet IS!

    Lord, I loathe debates! I don’t think my TV will stand another round of Obama, and his, “Look!” It’s as bad as Michelle’s, “See!” Yeesh!

    Romney won, but not by much. Debates are … *sigh* Bleahh!

  41. Bob Belvedere
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 7:38 am

    Haw.

  42. The Three Faces of Obama « Obi's Sister
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 9:18 am

    […] has the round-up, complete with handy Obama-translations for diplomatic terms. (insert term here) ________ = More […]

  43. librarygryffon
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 12:35 pm

    Correct. I’m married to a now-retired submariner, and worked at Subase NLON in Groton for two years before that. You learn very quickly that subs are NOT ships. Ships are targets, can’t resurface on their own, and as some commenter someplace this morning said, ships which go under water are called “sunk”. Submariners can’t imagine why anyone would want to go to sea in something that can’t resurface on it’s own.

  44. WyBlog - Obama and Romney foreign policy debate was like two underwater ships passing in the night
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 2:44 pm

    Obama and Romney foreign policy debate was like two underwater ships passing in the night…

    Apparently though, Obama “won”. All my liberal Facebook friends said so. Foreign policy isn’t Mitt’s strong suit, but then I saw this tweet from Stacy McCain. I also like his take on what Foreign Policy really means:…

  45. Your post-post debate wrap up! UPDATED! Obama camp worried about Ohio? « The Daley Gator
    October 23rd, 2012 @ 7:21 pm

    […] debate coverage would be complete without checking in with The Other McCain who sums up how we all feel Thank God, tonight’s debate is the last of this presidential […]