Monday night’s foreign policy debate may be the capstone of Mitt Romney’s rise in the polls and, if he handles it like the first two, it could be Obama’s Waterloo.
And what should Romney do? Very simply, he needs only to instill in voters the confidence that he is capable of being Commander-in-Chief of the military and a forceful leader to guide the United States through the encounters and crises the he is likely to confront as President. He needs to be strategic, he needs to avoid petty and small-minded spats with Obama, and he needs to demonstrate a commanding presence.
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Americans want a strong America. Be a strong Commander-in-Chief–not hard, when paired with the weak Obama–and Romney wins.
Romney is anything but an expert on national security and foreign policy issues, but he is a quick study and has been thoroughly tutored by a highly professional and experienced team of experts and likely knows enough about whatever will come up to hold his own. I had a long discussion late last week with one of those experts, a top Defense Department official in the Reagan Administration, who assured me that Romney would be able to respond intelligently, on substance, to anything that might arise.
Obama, of course, is no expert either and, as he demonstrated in the first two debates, relies on talking points, old speeches and accusations of Romney’s dishonesty and failure to connect with the American people.
Romney’s monologue on Obama’s domestic failures last Tuesday was a tour de force. It threw Obama on the defensive and scored more points for Romney than anything else in the debate. He needs to do the same thing on Monday, and my guess is he will. During the campaign he has been critical of Obama on his policies concerning recent uprising in the Middle East. He has also chastised the President over his handling of the Afghan war, defense spending and his policies concerning China and Russia. If he can reduce those criticisms, as he did last week, into two or three minutes he’ll leave Obama sputtering in the dust, with no retort.
So let’s run through the issues that are likely to arise on Monday night in Boca Raton, and what Romney needs to do:
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