No, I didn't actually doze off during the final presidential debate last night, but it was touch and go for a while. The polls this morning all agree President Obama won, but I certainly saw no knock-out punch or anything even close. What I saw was a surprising amount of agreement on the issue of foreign affairs. On many occasions Romney said he agreed with Obama's handling of (xyz). Where was the blood and broken, flying teeth? I just thought it was a boring event.
I will have to say that Obama did successfully (in my mind) call out the discrepancy in Romney's claim of a plan to generally cut spending and move towards a balanced budget all while cutting taxes across the board and increasing defense spending. That arithmetic just does not compute, and unless Romney can/will provide specifics on how he's going to do it, I'm a skeptic.
I will also agree with Obama that raw numbers of military hardware (ships, planes, etc) are no longer as important as weapons system capability and survivability. I've met many military leaders over the past dozen or so years and they all seem to agree. I sleep well.
What shocked me was the fact that Europe, Africa, South America, Australia, and most of Asia except China have just disappeared. They are apparently no longer even discussed when it comes to foreign affairs. Did you hear them mentioned last night at all? (OK, Russia was mentioned very briefly, but that was it.) They've just vanished!
No, the only part of the world that matters seems to be the Mideast and SW Asia. We seem to spend ALL our time / money / effort trying to civilize those heathens, and all we ever really do is buy off a few despots and corrupt generals. All because they have oil. There isn't a damn thing there besides that. As I've said before, we need to develop our own secure sources of energy so we can quit beating our heads against the wall trying to schmooze those bastards.
OK, now I'm worked up and awake....about 12 hours late.
S
