In the third debate, Mitt will likely go very hard against Obama on Embassy security.

[CTyankee]

What should be Obama's response?

Or will it be all over after the first debate (as the media is saying constantly) and everybody will be tuned out?

[landolfi]

1. How about: "Ah, Mitt, that it were as simple as you seem to think..."

[timber84]

2. The first debate

is supposed to be on Domestic policy.

[Rosco T.]

3. "Play by the rules jackass..."

.. the subject of this debate is DOMESTIC POLICY... FOREIGN POLICY is the third debate. Or did you not get that memo?

[CTyankee]

7. Oops! My bad. And I even noted it on my calendar "domestic policy"! Today may not be my best day...

I also left my keys in the ignition while I had my hair cut...it's just a good thing nobody would steal my old car...

[Rosco T.]

8. Just to clarify.. "Jackass" is Mittens

[CTyankee]

10. Oh, I knew that was what you were referring to! But I have now edited/corrected my post

to read properly...

[Arkana]

4. The first debate's domestic policy.

I'd expect to see that in the third debate, which is strictly foreign policy.

[CTyankee]

9. Yep, mea culpa. I have edited my post accordingly...thanks for letting me know...

[Raster]

5. please correct me if wrong, but wasn't the State Department's budget slashed by...

...the Republican obstructionist Congress?

[GeorgeGist]

30. Not without support from Dems in the Senate.

And Obama's signature.

Nice try though.

[Mponti]

6. Cite state department budget cuts by repugs

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. How utterly inconvenient (for Mitt)

Yay Tea Party and its obsession with less spending (for everything but "defense" anyway)!!!!

[WinkyDink]

12. Do Republicans really want to debate Americans' being attacked by Muslims? Hello, 9/11. Hello, 241

Marines in Beirut.

[DearAbby]

13. LOL ...third debate..

That would be after he gaffed the first two debates, and be lucky that even FOX is taking him seriously on foreign affairs.

Look at the rate Gaffes are being made, How many times has the Romney campaign had to reboot. Its a Campaign running on events...ambulance chasers...they have no clue about foreign affairs...neither does Romney.

[CTyankee]

15. I know, but it is the one area that worries me. If the campaign were smart (a BIG if) it would

have Mitt attack Obama there. And I think the White House was stunned by events in Libya and Egypt. I have never seen Hillary so devastated as after the loss in Benghazi. That attack hit Obama and Hillary very hard and were painful for them. Embassy safety is very serious, IMO...and I think this is very tough for them to explain.

Just a 2 cents worry from an old Dem here...

[DearAbby]

28. The pressure on Romney for this first debate

is enormous. He hasn't handled stress well up till now, what makes you think there will be a second or third debate?

The game will be up after the first debate, The GOP party will implode. All they have to do first debate, ask one question..."Explain the 47% Comment."

He can't. Debate over.

[CTyankee]

31. Do you think they'll just give up and cancel the other two debates?

I can't imagine that, even as badly beaten in the first debate as I think Romney will be. Sometimes I look at Romney when he is speaking and there's this strange look on his face, like he is in some kind of trance and seeing things that aren't there. In his alternate universe he may really believe that he IS winning, he's not just lying...

[bluedigger]

14. "The security of embassies is the responsibility of the host nation, Mitt."

"I haven't heard of any embassies being overrun here in the US, have you?"

[lpbk2713]

16. We don't want all our embassies to look like forts ...

with concertina wire and machine gun positions every few yards apart. And if we fortified only a few in this manner perhaps we shouldn't be there at all. It should be open enough where local residents would feel comfortable coming in and learning about our country and our culture and be at ease while doing so.

[CTyankee]

17. Good response and I think Obama would say something very like that. But he should also be

expecting the comeback from Romney "Shouldn't our intelligence be able to get us information about possible terrorist attacks?"

[lpbk2713]

18. That would be a precious gift.

Obama could reply with something like "You mean like GW Bush got before 0911?"

[CTyankee]

20. It would be a precious gift, I agree. And other presidents have had similar instances...

Reagan lost 265 Marines in Lebanon due to a terrorist attack that we didn't know about. President Clinton had some embassy attacks and the attack on the USS Cole. Both of them have emerged in a good light anyway.

I think Obama will be forgiven on this but it cannot be easy for him. I expect he made some immediate actions that we'll probably never know about but it is still tough. I'm sure he grieves these losses deeply...

[winstars]

19. I believe by then we will have acted on intelligence and wacked a bunch of the guys who did the deed

Last edited Sat Sep 29, 2012, 01:56 AM - Edit history (1)

I'd like to think that all this CNN and Faux Embassygate stuff is gonna get squashed very soon. No FBI at the scene, our "stuff lying around, that is not so good. But I want to believe that any CSI detecting is pointless anyway because its not like their is gonna be fingerprints on a glass or doorknob like on the TeeVee.

I like to think they will figure who did it with local informants, and intelligence. Then with drones overhead we will fire some Hellfire missiles at some well deserving house or camp or even use some cruise missiles just cause its easy to from the ships we have right off the coast of Libya. And we will show the doubters that people, groups etc should not fuck with us.

I like to think that Mittens will never get to use this much because we will have changed the whole storyline...

[CTyankee]

22. I think you are right and the third debate certainly is far enough away for something to happen

to get at least some of the perps.

[porphyrian]

21. Everything in this election matters; it's a historical record breaker.

I can't say what Obama should do, but I would ask Romney where the fuck he gets off criticizing anyone on foreign policy when his tax evading money has seen more international diplomacy than he has.

[CTyankee]

23. But that to me sounds like he's avoiding the question.

My guess is that Obama is going to first and foremost debate as the President of the United States. That being the case I expect him to say things like "As President, I deal with critical issues from all over the world on a daily basis and the world is a dangerous place...." and start that narrative. Who knows how many plots his people have already foiled, that we may never know about? I remember Clinton saying that after the USS Cole incident. It's a difficult thing to do because Obama simply CAN'T talk about a lot of this stuff. It truly is a "you have to trust me" type of situation. We don't have a choice, but what we can do is choose the candidate that we trust more on the issue...

[porphyrian]

24. That's why I didn't answer for him, I said what I'd say.

[CTyankee]

25. Yup. Well, I think we are just going to have to trust that this is something the campaign has

thought deeply about and has developed a reasoned response. I feel that I know enough about the way Obama and his folks think to trust them here...

[porphyrian]

26. I feel they are on-the-ball professionals and I trust them. I'm sure they are working hard...

...even if the competition is making it easier for them.

[DreamGypsy]

27. How about a response like: House proposed $5 billion cut for State Department and foreign operation

From April 25, 2012

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/04/25/house_proposes_5_billion_cut_for_state_department_and_foreign_operations

The House Appropriations Committee proposed cutting the State Department and foreign operations budget by more than $5 billion next year, in its annual allocations released Tuesday.

The Obama administration actually requested modest increases in funding for the State Department and USAID for fiscal 2013 when it released its budget request in February. While the Congress doesn't divide up the accounts the same way as the administration, in an apples-to-apples comparison, the House Appropriations Committees' allocation for State and foreign operations for fiscal 2013, $48.4 billion, would represent a 12 percent cut from the administration's $54.71 billion request for the same accounts.

The House proposed fully funding the president's $8.2 billion request for State Department funding related to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account. Therefore, the remainder of the funding proposed by the House, $40.1 billion for the base budget, would represent a 14 percent cut to the administration's request for non-war related diplomatic and development activities.

snip

Subcommittee ranking Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY) criticized the cuts in her own statement to The Cable.

"I am disappointed by this short-sighted allocation and the Republicans' decision to ignore bipartisan funding levels agreed to in the Budget Control Act," she said. "We must not make cuts that fundamentally weaken our national security interests."

[CTyankee]

29. Excellent! Obama can say "Glad you brought that up, Governor." And then let him have it with

what the House Approp. Comm. did and ask Romney if agrees with the cut to foreign operations given recent incidents...