Round On The Sides, High In the Middle

I listened to the Monday night debate on the radio, or, rather, I listened for about 45 minutes.  I then went to bed, which I figured was a better use of my time.  I did, however, read all sorts of recaps, fact checks, and analyses yesterday.  I was most satisfied with David Horsey's take and his conclusion.

Another debate brought out another version of Mitt Romney. This third time around, the chameleon candidate was not the hard-charging neo-con hawk of the primaries. Instead, he talked about peace, negotiations and using military power as a last resort. ...

Yes, Romney took shots at Obama's foreign policy, calling it weak and apologetic, but then he proceeded to agree with the nearly every aspect of what the president has done, from Libya to Iran. He abandoned his criticism of Obama's timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and said he would bring the soldiers home on the same schedule. He also eschewed past complaints that Obama had abandoned Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak and indicated he too would have let Mubarak take the fall.

Romney's foreign policy as of Monday night seems to be "me too!"

Will this worry the hard-line Republican foreign policy cadre? No, why should it? Romney has proved time and again just how malleable he is on any and all issues. These tough guys who brought us the Iraq war know they will be back in charge at the Pentagon and at the State Department in a Romney administration. For now, they will give him a pass to do anything it takes to get elected. ...

It all added up to a win for Obama, but not necessarily a loss for Romney. Today, Romney will be back to the core effort of the campaign's final two weeks: trying to change the electoral math by flipping Florida, North Carolina and Virginia his way and then moving on to the campaign's ground zero -- Ohio, the place where just a handful of voters will decide who will run America’s foreign policy for the next four years.   [Emphasis added]

Mitt Romney's Etch-a-Sketch has had quite a workout the past several months, but, hey!, it's still working, and in all sorts of ways.  If the mainstream media and pundit class are to be believed, the race is very, very close.  Apparently a lot of Americans like the White Guy, even if his knowledge of Middle East geography is sadly lacking.  He has people who will look at the maps for him.

That means two more weeks of frantic campaigning, tons of robo-calls and television ads, millions of dollars expended.  And it just might come down to Ohio.  Mike Luckovich provides an excellent visual of that scenario. 

What a weird country this has become.