Obama-Romney Debate. 22.10.2012. Moderator Bob Schieffer. Florida I. Challenge of a Changing Middle East in the Face of Terrorism 1.

Governor Romney, you said this was an example of an American policy in the Middle East that is unravelling before our very eyes. I'd like to hear each of you give your thoughts on that. Governor Romney, you won the toss. You go first. Romney R1 2 min. Thanks. 1. We see a complete change in the structure and environment in the Middle East. The Arab spring did not bring positive change to the Middle East, but disturbing events: a. Syria, 30000 civilians killed. b. Libya, attack by terrorists against our people. c. Mali taken over by Al Qaeda type individuals. d. Egypt taken over by MB. e. Iran, four years closer to a nuclear weapon. 2. We have to recognise that, although I congratulate what the president has done on assassinating Osama Bin Laden and going after Al Qaeda, we cannot kill our way out of this mess. We have to: a. Put in place a comprehensive and robust strategy to help the world of Islam reject leadership of violent extremism b. Al Qaeda is not on the run, but involved in over ten countries and presents an enormous threat to the world. R2 2 min. 1. (To O1.6) My strategy is: a. Go after the bad guys, kill them, take them out of the picture. b. But is broader and is a pathway to getting the Muslim world to rejecting extremism as a whole,

Obama

O1 2 min. 1. First job as Commander in Chief is to keep American people safe; this was what we done over the past four years: a. Ended the war in Iraq. b. Focused on those who

attacked us, Al Qaeda. by: c. Consequence, Al Qaedas 2. Going after leaders of Jihadist groups. core leadership has been a. Group of Arab scholars in UN decimated. argued that the solution is: 2. Now we are able to transition out of i. More economic Afghanistan and let them protect development. We should themselves. key our foreign aid to avoid 3. We can now focus on developing jihad. alliances around the world to combat ii. Better education. future threats. iii. Gender equality. 4. In Libya: iv. Rule of law. Create civil a. Did everything we could to societies. protect those in harms way. 3. In the past few years, the tumult caused Al b. Did everything we could to Qaeda and Jihadists to rush in. investigate what happened. 4. Libya made some progress despite this c. Go after those who killed tragedy, but Egypt next door has 80 Americans and bring them to million people who are under the control justice. of the MB, Mali is being taken over by Al 5. In Libya, I took leadership in Qaeda, in Syria Assad is still murdering organising an international coalition his own people, and Iran is still on the way to liberate a country without putting to a nuclear weapon. troops on the ground and creating a Middle Eastern ally. 6. (To R1.2) Romneys strategy has previously been all over the map, wont keep the country safe, or build on opportunities that exist in the Middle East. O2 2 min. R3 1 min. 1. (General) Now you recognise that Al 1. (General) Presidents claims are ad Qaeda is a threat but a few months hominem and irrelevant to the discussion ago you said the greatest geopolitical about the Middle East. Attacking me is threat facing the US was Russia. not an agenda. Cold war has been over for 20 years. 2. (To O2.1) I indicated that Russia is a 2. Therefore, Romney wants to geopolitical foe, and that Iran is the implement foreign policy of the greatest strategic threat we face. 1980s, social policies of the 1950s a. Russia challenges us time and and economic policies of the 1920s. time again in the UN. 3. Romney claims we should not b. Not going to turn a blind eye and duplicate Iraq, but previously said give Putin more flexibility after that we should have more troops in the election (A reference to Iraq right now. Obama promise to Putin). Will 4. All Romneys opinions are wrong, give more backbone. e.g. Iraq, not passing nuclear treaties c. We both agreed that there should with Russia, should not have be a status of forces agreement. timeline in Afghanistan, should have

one in Afghanistan mixed message. 5. Thus, we need strong and steady leadership, not leadership all over the map. O3 15 sec. 1. (To R3.2.c) Not what I agreed, I agreed that we should not leave 10000 troops in Iraq that would tie us down.

O4 5 sec. 1. Just a few weeks ago you indicated that we should have more troops in Iraq. O5 1. You need to be clear. A few weeks ago you said we should have troops in Iraq. That is not a recipe for meeting our challenges. 2. We cannot meet these challenges only militarily. a. Make sure that these countries are supporting our counter terror ops. b. Make sure they stand by our interests in Israels security. c. Make sure we are protecting religious minorities and women. d. Develop economic capabilities. e. Recognise that we cant continue nation building abroad, because we have to do it at home. Deliberation: In the first segment on the Middle East and terror, Obamas strategy consisted of restating his achievements and drawing a picture of Romney as irresponsible. This was to a large degree ineffective, since Romneys arguments were not effectively met with refutation. Romneys arguments on the Presidents failure in putting in place a Status of Forces agreement stood up well against Obamas claims about Romneys Iraq troops statements. Romneys overall strategy was not touched upon by Obama, who instead focused on Romneys personal flaws, whereas

R4 15 sec. 1. (To O3.1) There was an effort on the part of the president to have a status of forces agreement and I concurred and said that we should have some troops that stay on. We both had the same opinion. a. I said we should have 10000 troops, you said we should have 5000 troops. But you still agreed. R5 5 sec. 1. (To O4.1) I did not; I indicated that you failed to put in place a status of forces agreement at the end of the conflict.

Romney addressed and gave a refutation to each of Obamas points. While neither was completely convincing in arguing for how their actual policies would work, Romney actually put forth a specific strategy, whereas Obama listed his achievements and Romneys flaws. Winner: Romney 2. The war in Syria has now spilled over into Lebanon. We have what, more than 100 people that were killed there in a bomb. There were demonstrations there, eight people dead. Mr. President, it's been more than a year since you saw - you told Assad he had to go. Since then, 30,000 Syrians have died. We've had 300,000 refugees. The war goes on. He's still there. Should we reassess our policy and see if we can find a better way to influence events there? Or is that even possible? Obama O1 1:30 mins. 1. We have done the following in our policy: a. Organised the international community. b. Mobilised sanctions. c. Humanitarian assistance. d. Helping opposition organise. e. Interested in making sure we mobilise the moderate forces inside of Syria. 2. But Syrians are going to have to determine their own future. 3. For us to get militarily entangled is a serious step and we need to know who we are helping. 4. Giving weapons to the opposition might not make us safer in the long term. Romney R1 2:15 mins. 1. It is a humanitarian disaster. 2. Syria is an opportunity for us: a. It is a serious route for Iran to the Mediterranean. b. A route to arm Hezbollah. 3. Thus our interests are: a. Removing Assad. b. A replacement government. c. Non-military involvement. 4. Right course is working through partners and council to take the lead in Syria and making sure theyre armed. Making sure theyre not in the wrong hands. Need to coordinate with Israel, Saudis and Qataris. 5. We want to see Syria as a friend in the future in the Middle East. 6. President says we should let the UN deal with it. Let the Russians do it. Instead we should play the leadership role. R2 1:15 mins. Q. Governor, can I just ask you, would you go beyond what the administration would do, like for example, would you put in no-fly zones over Syria? 1. I dont want our military involved in Syria, and dont see a need. Our objective is to replace Assad, put in a friendly government, and make sure they get armed. Military involvement isnt necessary because of our allies in the region.

O2 1:30 mins. 1. (To R1.6) We are playing the leadership role: Organised friends of Syria, humanitarian support, support of opposition. Made sure those we support will be our allies in the long term. 2. When we went into Libya we had to make sure Gadhafi did not stay in power. Romneys suggestion was that this was beyond our goals. But if we let Gadhafi go, he would have more blood on his hands. We made sure we knew

who we were dealing with, and knowing that that we could trust them. We need to do the same with Syria. O3 30 secs. 1. What you heard Romney say is not different from me because that was what we should be doing.

2. This should have been the time for American leadership. To put together parties in the region the opposition is disparate; we need to put them together.

May I ask you, during the Egyptian turmoil, there came a point when you said it was time for President Mubarak to go; some in your administration thought perhaps we should have waited a while on that. Do you have any regrets about that? Obama O1 2:30 mins. 1. No because we have to stand with democracy. We have to put pressure on Egypt to make sure that women have education. We have to get them to abide by their treaty with Israel. We have to make sure they cooperate with us when it comes to counter terrorism. We are trying to set up entrepreneurship conferences to get Egyptians to build their economy. 2. At home we need to develop our own economy, energy and education system. Romney R1. 2:30 mins. Q. Governor Romney, I want to hear your response to that, but I would just ask you, would you have stuck with Mubarak? 1. No. I agree with the president, but we should have worked more aggressively from the beginning to make the transition so that it did not explode in the way it did. Once it exploded I think that we could not support Mubarak crushing his people. 2. Our purpose is making sure the world is more peaceful. The mantle of leadership is Americas, it is our honour. In order to do that we must be strong: a. That requires a strong economy, and it is not strong. President of Iran and Admiral Mullen say that our biggest threat is our debt. b. We need a strong economy and strong military. But the idea of a trillion dollars of cuts would change that. c. We need strong allies and to stand by them. d. We need to stand by our principles. 3. Nowhere in the world are we stronger than we were four years ago.

Deliberation: There was virtually no difference in constructive arguments between Obama and Romney in section 2. Obama is open to military options in Syria, Romney is completely closed to it, but there was no refutation or specific debate over these points. Winner: Draw II. Americas Role in the World 1. You're going to get a chance to respond to that, because that's a perfect segue into our next segment, and that is, what is America's role in the world? And that is the question. What do each of you see as our role in the world, and I believe, Governor Romney, it's your chance to go first. Romney R1 2 mins. 1. America has a responsibility and privilege to promote American principles: a. Human rights b. Human dignity c. Free enterprise d. Freedom of expression e. Elections which promote peace. 2. We need to end conflicts in the world. 3. To do all this we must be strong and lead and improve our economy at home. Jobs. 4. We need to strengthen our military because we dont know what lies down the road. In 2000 debates there was no mention of terrorism, and a year later 9/11 happened. We make decisions based on uncertainty. 5. We need to stand by our allies, we need to stand by Israel, not pull out of our missile defence in Poland, stand for our principles president was silent in the Green revolution in Iran. R2 1:45 mins. 1. I have a policy for the future and have a way to give us a rise in jobs and take home pay. 2. Last four years I dont want to see in next four years. President said wed be at 5.4% unemployment; we are 9 million jobs short. 3. I can improve jobs and take home pay

Obama

O1 2:20 mins. 1. The world needs a strong America and it is stronger now because we ended the war in Iraq and allowed us to refocus on alliances and relationships that we had neglected for a decade. 2. Our alliances have never been stronger. Including Israel. 3. We also have been trying to rebuild

America. Bring manufacturing back to our shores, creating jobs here, auto industries. Developing clean industries. Cutting oil imports. 4. Need to reduce our deficit; Romneys plan doesnt do it. We need to ask wealthiest to pay a little bit more so we can develop technology to cutting edge. 5. Romney is taking us back to Bush and Cheney.

O2 1:45 mins. 1. What we need to compete: small businesses. But Romney ranked 48th out of 50 in Massachusetts in small businesses because his policies dont help small businesses, and your definition include folks at the very top. 2. In education, under my leadership, we reformed education working with governors. We have seen progress in schools. Now I want to hire more teachers in math and science, they can make a difference. Romney said class size does not make a difference, but it does. If you support math teachers, that will determine whether the economy succeeds. Romneys budget proposals which slash support for education will not set us on a path for success.

with five easy steps: i. North American energy independence through coal, gas, oil, nuclear and renewable. ii. Increase our trade. Increase 12% a year, and we can do better than that by taking advantage of trading with Latin America which has an economy as big as China. iii. Training programmes that work for our workers and schools that put the parents, teachers and students first and union behind. iv. Balanced budget, otherwise we will be on the path to Greece. v. Need to champion small business. 2/3rds of our jobs are from small businesses. If we cut taxes on those we will have a rise in jobs and take home pay. R3 1min. 1. In Massachusetts we had tests in English and Math each year. And fourth graders came out number 1 out of all 50 states in Math and English. Eight graders 1 in all 50 states in Math. This is from focusing, with bipartisan support, on hiring good teachers. O Cross talk: But that was 10 years before you took office. R Cross talk reply: And we kept our schools number 1 in the nation and theyre still number 1 today. 2. We gave students a graduation exam so that if they were in top they got a free education at any higher learning institution. O Crosstalk: That happened before you took office. R Crosstalk Reply: That was mine actually.

Governor, you say you want a bigger military. You want a bigger Navy. You don't want to cut defence spending. What I want to ask you - we were talking about financial problems in this country. Where are you going to get the money? Obama Romney

O1 2 mins. 1. Romney will do this by closing deductions and the math does not work. 2. Wants to spend more on military spending that the military is not asking for. We spend more than any of the other top countries combined. 3. What we need to do to keep us safe is the budget we put forth. 4. You cannot spend 2 trillion more on military spending, lose 5 trillion on tax cuts, paid for by closing loopholes and deductions without naming them, and then balance the budget we already have. The math does not work. 5. We need to think about capabilities: cyber security and space. This is not driven by politics but by strategy what we need to do to keep American people safe. 6. Then deal with deficit because that is a serious concern. R1 1. The question is not how many

R1 3 mins. 1. We do this by: i. Cutting 5% of discretionary budget excluding military. ii. Reducing spending in a whole series of programs including Obamacare. Doesnt sound good and is not affordable. Get rid of them as much as humanly possible. iii. Keep programmes we need like Medicaid and hand it to the states, who can run it more efficiently, e.g. Arizona and Rhode Island. This gets us to a balanced budget in 810 years. R2 2 mins. 1. I balanced budgets for 25 years. I balanced the Olympics budget. I balanced Massachusetts budget, cut taxes 19 times and balanced it. Obama hasnt balanced his, I can do it. 2. On military spending: a. Our navy is smallest since 1913, it asked for 313 ships, we have 285, if we do Obamas sequestration we will be in low 200s. b. Air force is smaller than any time since 1947. c. Changed since FDR to being able to fight in two conflicts at once, now we can only fight in one. 3. To cut the military budget by 1 trillion, combination of sequestration and budget cuts is to threaten the American people. And makes our future less safe and secure.