Mike Malloy live commentary over the final presidential debate on Oct. 22 (all 6 segments)

[alp227]

Mike also did live commentaries for the past debates:
- Oct. 3 presidential
- Oct. 11 vice presidential
- Oct. 16 presidential town hall

PART 1 of 6:

Go to the 2:40 mark to skip the sponsorship messages. Transcript is at: http://debates.org/index.php?page=october-22-2012-the-third-obama-romney-presidential-debate

The show joins the debate at:

OBAMA: ...And, you know, Governor Romney, I'm glad that you agree that we have been successful in going after Al Qaida, but I have to tell you that, you know, your strategy previously has been one that has been all over the map and is not designed to keep Americans safe or to build on the opportunities that exist in the Middle East.

Topics this segment include Israel, Middle East, foreign policy

ENDS AT 9:27 during:

OBAMA: ...Number two, make sure that they are standing by our interests in Israel's security, because it is a true friend and our greatest ally in the region.

Mike suggests that Romney is on speed, before the commercial break.

PART 2 of 6:

Mike begins the second segment commenting on Romney's gaffe calling Syria the "route to the sea" of Iran.

SEGMENT BEGINS AT ROMNEY: I don't want to have our military involved in Syria. I don't think there is a necessity to put our military in Syria at this stage. I don't anticipate that in the future.

(Topics in this segment mostly about Syria/Egypt/Iran)

SEGMENT ENDS AT: ROMNEY: No. I believe, as the president indicated, and said at the time that I supported his -- his action there. I felt that -- I wish we'd have had a better vision of the future.

I wish that, looking back at the beginning of the president's term and even further back than that...

PART 3 of 6:

Before joining the live debate, Mike reports that an online poll by CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) showed that nearly 80% of CBC viewers thought Obama won the debate. Mike then calls Mitt Romney hypocritical for attacking Muslim countries' records on human rights and women's rights when Romney's own religion (Mormonism) is also restrictive and authoritarian. Mike also senses that Romney's statements about foreign intervention is code for getting oil.

Skip the sponsor messages by going to 3:05. Transcript is at http://debates.org/index.php?page=october-22-2012-the-third-obama-romney-presidential-debate

The show re-joined the debate at this point:

Ends at:

OBAMA: And that is not reflected in the kind of budget that you're putting forward because it just doesn't work.

SCHIEFFER: All right.

OBAMA: And, you know, we visited the website quite a bit and it still doesn't work.

SCHIEFFER: A lot to cover. I'd like -- I'd like to move to the next segment: red lines, Israel and Iran.

Education and the military are the main topics in this debate. At 8:35 is the point where Obama famously talked about horses and bayonets, due to Romney's 1917 remark:

ROMNEY: Our Navy is old -- excuse me, our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We're now at under 285. We're headed down to the low 200s if we go through a sequestration. That's unacceptable to me.

I want to make sure that we have the ships that are required by our Navy. Our Air Force is older and smaller than at any time since it was founded in 1947.

We've changed for the first time since FDR -- since FDR we had the -- we've always had the strategy of saying we could fight in two conflicts at once. Now we're changing to one conflict. Look, this, in my view, is the highest responsibility of the President of the United States, which is to maintain the safety of the American people.

And I will not cut our military budget by a trillion dollars, which is a combination of the budget cuts the president has, as well as the sequestration cuts. That, in my view, is making -- is making our future less certain and less secure.

OBAMA: Bob, I just need to comment on this.

First of all, the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen.

The budget that we are talking about is not reducing our military spending. It is maintaining it.

But I think Governor Romney maybe hasn't spent enough time looking at how our military works.

You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.

OBAMA: And so the question is not a game of Battleship, where we're counting slips. It's what are our capabilities. And so when I sit down with the Secretary of the Navy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we determine how are we going to be best able to meet all of our defense needs in a way that also keeps faith with our troops, that also makes sure that our veterans have the kind of support that they need when they come home.


And ends at:

SCHIEFFER: A lot to cover. I'd like -- I'd like to move to the next segment: red lines, Israel and Iran.

PART 4 of 6:

Show re-joins debate at 3:40, at:

ROMNEY: Then when there were dissidents in the streets of Tehran, a Green Revolution, holding signs saying, is America with us, the president was silent. I think they noticed that as well.

This segment was mainly about the Iranian nuclear program. If you remember what Bush was doing 10 years ago, you'll understand why Mike is mad as hell with both candidates over the Iran issue.

Ends at:

ROMNEY: We're four years closer to a nuclear Iran. We're four years closer to a nuclear Iran. And -- and -- we should not have wasted these four years to the extent they -- they continue to be able to spin these centrifuges and get that much closer. That's number one.

PART 5 of 6:

Mike began by summarizing [link: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/10/21/romneys-military-advisory-council-made-up-of-military-contractors/|an Addicting Info blog entry] emailed by a listener.

After an extended commentary and sponsorship messages, the show rejoins debate (4:05) at:

ROMNEY: (It's a nation that's not like -- like others and it does not have a civilian leadership that is calling the shots there. You have the ISI, their intelligence organization,) is probably the most powerful of the -- of three branches there. Then you have the military and then you have the civilian government.

This is a nation, which, if it falls apart, if it -- if it becomes a failed state, there are nuclear weapons there and you've got -- you've got terrorists there who could grab their -- their hands onto those nuclear weapons.

Topics in this segment: Pakistan, drone strikes, free trade, terrorism

Ends at:

OBAMA: In fact, just recently steelworkers in Ohio and throughout the Midwest -- Pennsylvania -- are in a position now to sell steel to China because we won that case. We had a tire case in which they were flooding us with cheap domestic tires -- or -- or cheap Chinese tires. And we put a stop to it and as a consequence saved jobs...

PART 6 of 6:

This segment is basically the closing arguments by the two candidates.

After Mike reads a listener's email about Romney scapegoating Muslims over extremism, the show rejoins the debate at 1:50, at:

OBAMA: [And when it comes to our military and Chinese security, part of the reason that we were able to pivot to the Asia-Pacific region after having ended the war in Iraq and] transitioning out of Afghanistan, is precisely because this is going to be a massive growth area in the future.

ENDS AT:

OBAMA: But more importantly it is true that in order for us to be competitive, we're going to have to make some smart choices right now.

Cutting our education budget, that's not a smart choice. That will not help us compete with China.

Cutting our investments in research and technology, that's not a smart choice. That will not help us compete with China.

Towards the end, Mike yells for Obama to mention Sensata, but Obama never did. Mike ends his live commentary mentioning that Ann Romney was concerned about Mitt's mental health.