As I learned from reading this piece at Huffington Post, tonight’s debate moderator Bob Schieffer has telegraphed his questions, effectively giving the candidates a cheat sheet.
…this final debate will also feature six questions, and candidates will have fifteen minutes to answer each, the same format that was attempted, rather unsuccessfully, in the opening round.
Those six question/discussion sections will encompass the following themes, barring any news event that intervenes between now and then:
America’s role in the world
Our longest war – Afghanistan and Pakistan
Red Lines – Israel and Iran
The Changing Middle East and the New Face of Terrorism – I
The Changing Middle East and the New Face of Terrorism – II
The Rise of China and Tomorrow’s World
These are good questions, but it leaves out almost any possibility that we can here a discussion of Europe’s economy or our relationships in Latin America, or anything non-terrorism-related in Africa. Schieffer didn’t just forget Poland; he forgot Russia, which Mitt Romney famously claimed was our biggest enemy.
What about global warming? What about HIV/AIDs? What about global poverty and hunger? No discussion of Mexico’s problem with gang violence and the War on Drugs?
At least legislatively, some of Obama’s biggest foreign policy moves have had nothing to do with the Middle East, Iran, or Pakistan. He signed free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia, and the New START Treaty with Russia. It sounds like he’ll have to create some pretext to shoehorn those accomplishments into the conversation.
Romney’s biggest foreign policy accomplishment so far was to anger the Brits so severely that only three percent of them say that they’d view America more favorably if the Mittster is elected. I guess we can’t talk about that either.
So we know that the moderator isn’t going to be throwing the candidates any curveballs. That is a definite advantage for Romney. He won’t have to bone up on foreign leaders’ names because he won’t be getting any questions about Moldova or Tajikistan.
Since part of this exercise is supposed to be to vet the challenger’s knowledge of foreign affairs so we can reassure ourselves that he’s up to the challenge, announcing the questions ahead of time is self-defeating.
However, at least Obama knows that it’s up to him to expose Romney’s blind spots. Hopefully, he remembers that and has a plan.
One difference between the first debate and this one is that the two candidates will have to sit in near-proximity to one another and cannot get up and walk away to avoid the urge to punch each other in the neck. Given the level of raw testosterone that was wafting around during the townhall debate, this should present a challenge to both candidates. Above all, Mitt Romney is a very irritating man. And his game plan for both of the first two debates was to establish himself as the alpha dog and aggressor. It seems to have worked very well in the first debate, but it allowed Obama to walk him into a trap in the second. The sit-down format is simply not suited for that kind of aggression, but that doesn’t mean that Romney will be able to dial it all the way down. On the other hand, Obama has to avoid losing his patience and letting the whole thing devolve into a shouting match. These men simply do not like each other, and they don’t like losing.
There could be fireworks.