Forget “jobs, jobs, jobs.” On Monday night, this election quickly became about “Libya, Iran, Israel.”
In fact, this election wasn’t suppose to be about anything else than the economy. And it seemed that was the way the Romney-Ryan presidential ticket liked it. When you are running against the president who brought down Osama bin Laden, it seemed natural.
Especially after a season of foreign policy gaffes from Governor Romney – between insulting America’s most steadfast Western ally on the eve of the London Olympics or stating as fact that Russia was our most detrimental geopolitical foe – it didn’t seem that Romney was looking for a foreign policy fight.
But along the way to Monday night’s foreign policy-centric debate, international affairs has butted its way into the election. The tragic attack in Benghazi and its political fallout was the weak October Surprise that allowed foreign policy to gain a footing in this election. But it is also true that very simply elections open us up to an ongoing national dialogue about almost every facet of our democracy. And as Foreign Policy magazine’s David Rothkopf notes: “Forget what the polls say: Foreign policy has been centrally important to almost every election of the past 40 years in the United States.”
Let’s also not forget that the job of the commander-in-chief is by in large taken up by statesmanship. This debate should have been the most important one in helping the American people decide who should represent them to the world. Foreign policy and national security is the place that the man (or eventually let’s hope the woman) we vote for truly has singular influence.
And yet, I think I can safely say this debate didn’t help many people make up their minds. One reason is because Governor Romney (both physically and rhetorically) sat so close to the president on most issues that it was hard to know what he actually is proposing. It also won’t matter that much because this nation’s foreign policy has been dictated by neo-colonial mandates, the steam rolling force of our military industrial complex and the catch-22 nature of our post- WW2 post-protectionist posture in the world.
It is also the case that the best laid plans most often go astray when it comes to foreign affairs. We can only vote for the person we think has the best judgment (and not to mention best foreign policy advisors) because we don’t know what will hit their desk next.
But here is where the debate took its most interesting turn:









