Battle in Boca; Romney Sidesteps Libya, Stays Ahead in Polls

The event was the last time the two will meet in such a forum before voters go to the polls on November eighth. Moderated by CBS News’ Bob Schieffer, the debate was held at Lynn University in Boca Rotan, Florida, a main battleground state this election.

Schieffer started the debate with biggest foreign policy topic of the past two months: the September 11th attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, resulting in the deaths of four Americans. The issue is Obama’s Achilles’ Heel , made sore by contradicting messages from the White House in the wake of the incident, in addition to recent evidence showing the consulate in Benghazi was denied several requests for increased security in the months and weeks leading up to the fatal attack.

The topic was given first to Romney. But, rather than using the opportunity to expose Obama’s perceived incompetency in national security, and weakness in foreign policy—not to mention murmurs of a cover-up--, the governor sidestepped the issue. In fact, he made no mention at all of the President’s mishandling of the incident. Instead, he spoke more broadly about the worsening tumult in the Middle East over the last four years and outlined his foreign policy strategy for that region.

“The right course for us is to make sure that we go after the people who are leaders of these various anti-American groups and these -- these jihadists,”

he said,

“but also help the Muslim world. And how do we do that? A group of Arab scholars came together, organized by the U.N., to look at how we can help the world reject these terrorists. And the answer they came up with was this: One, more economic development. We should key our foreign aid, our direct foreign investment, and that of our friends, we should coordinate it to make sure that we push back and give them more economic development. Number two, better education. Number three, gender equality. Number four, the rule of law. We have to help these nations create civil societies. “

For his part, Obama recycled his statement from last debate:

“When we received that phone call,”

he said,

“I immediately made sure that, number one, that we did everything we could to secure those Americans who were still in harm's way; number two, that we would investigate exactly what happened, and number three, most importantly, that we would go after those who killed Americans and we would bring them to justice. And that's exactly what we're going to do.”

Documents coming to light over the last two months challenge these statements. Yesterday, another email surfaced from the State Department showing that within two hours of the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi hundreds of Obama officials had been alerted to the potential role of al-Qaeda-affiliate Ansar al-Sharia. In the weeks following the attacks, however, the public was told the incident was a result of spontaneous protests in response to an American-made anti-Islam movie (made several months prior). We also learned this week a U.S. drone circled the airspace during the attack, sending back a video of the event in real-time to Washington. Analysts submit that State Department officials and, perhaps even the president himself watched the events as they unfolded. Additionally, a deeper analysis of the situation this week showed that troops were poised in Tripoli and Italy to offer support for Benghazi, but were not moved to the area in time.

Following the debate, analysts said Romney avoided Libya and hypotheticals of war to appeal to women voters. As such, he allowed the president to attack his positions with seldom retaliations.

“Attacking me is not talking about an agenda for getting more jobs in the country,”

Romney said at one point. Although the focus was foreign policy, the governor turned the discussion to the economy by quoting Admiral Mullin, who said the nation’s debt is the biggest threat to national security. Here, Romney reiterated the country’s current financial situation, a result, he says, of the policies of the last four years: a $4300 average decline in household income; 23 million Americans out of work; an additional $6 trillion in national debt for a total of $16 trillion, and an increase of Americans on food stamps from 32 million (before Obama came to office) to the current number of 47 million. Romney said he will help get people off food stamps by getting them working.

Obama’s plan included spending more on education and taxing the wealthy, which includes (although unsaid) small business owners. He also said he wants to cut spending that we don’t need. Here, he didn’t specify the spending “we don’t need,” but military spending has already been cut and more seems imminent with impending sequestration on the horizon.

Romney’s plan for the future focused on growing the economy by making America an attractive place for companies to do business. Although not mentioned in this week’s debate part of this plan includes reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent.

The consensus among analysts and pundits was that Romney came across as more presidential and reasonable than the incumbent, while Obama exuded arrogance and aggression.

Heading into the last two weeks of the election, Romney is up 50 percent to Obama’s 47 percent, according to today’s Rasmussen poll, as the candidates continue to court voters in the key battleground states.