Obama Wins The Debate - And Mitt Romney Agrees.

To say that watching last night's foreign policy debate was painful would be a bit like saying an ax to the head will give a person a minor headache. Of course, as a variant on the old axiom goes, 'When you're a fool with an ax, everything looks like a tree.'

From the beginning, the President was poised, assertive, and focused - and he hit Romney hard. Mr. Romney was visibly nervous all night long. It was as though he had an ax to grind with the President, but was simply too afraid to swing it. Inevitably, Romney's policy positions were much like they have been his entire campaign - scattered all over the place, not really landing any serious blows at all.

At the first question from moderator Bob Schieffer, Romney began churning out word-salad responses that sounded confused and yet somehow also pre-rehearsed. In contrast, President Obama spontaneously brought clear details to the first question on Libya and his foreign policy. Obama ticked off a list of foreign policy accomplishments, including the end of the war in Afghanistan, the killing of Bin Laden, and the decimation of Al Qaeda's leadership. Obama then shifted to the attack in Libya, and reminded people that Americans helped topple the brutal regime of Muammar Gaddafi just a year ago.

Romney responded to President Obama's Gaddafi answer with a comment about how he too would "go after the bad guys," sounding strangely like George W. Bush. Again, though, Romney didn't give any real details. Sadly for Romney fans, this was the pattern for the whole debate.

At each question, President Obama would give details, some of them highly specific. Romney would often agree with President Obama, but not give details about what he would do differently. When Romney wasn't delivering word salad, or agreeing with the President, he would dance around the current question, like a verbal version of the 'Time Warp': Just a jump to the left, then a step to the right...

Our 'Time Warp' reference seems oddly fitting, since President Obama also nailed Mr. Romney on the core problem with the Republican nominee's policies - a combination of 1980s foreign policy, with 1950s social policies, and 1920s economic policies.

President Obama also made it clear that Romney is stuck in a time warp on military budgeting. When pinned down by Bob Schieffer on the fact that the math on Romney's military budget simply doesn't add up, Romney kept repeating the idea that the U.S. Navy is the smallest since 1917. Obama replied to Romney's military mendacity, "You mention the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916." "

"Well governor," said Obama, "we also have fewer horses and bayonets… It's not a game of battleship where we're counting ships, it's 'What are our capabilities?'"

That key goal, of keeping focused on the priorities of Americans, was also key to Obama's success in the debate, as the Washington Post's Greg Sargent noted. Obama linked his broader foreign policy argument to his main message - that our government needs to once again invest in America, and in the American middle class. At every turn, from trade with China and offshoring of jobs, to the winding down of the American war machine and how that money can be put back into education, infrastructure, and paying down the debt, President Obama did something many pundits didn't think he could do: Make foreign policy relevant to Americans again.

One member of our staff summed up what Romney likely thought but didn't say in one simple line: "I agree with most of the stuff you're doing, President Obama - but I still think you suck."

In short, Obama had the details, knew the facts, and quite obviously had a mastery of foreign policy. He knew the power of diplomacy, and the influence our American foreign policy has on our domestic priorities - and the polls agree that Obama crushed Romney.

Romney appeared weak, vacillating, anxious, unclear, and quite obviously unprepared. In short, Romney was simply out of his league, a fool with an ax to grind - but no ability to do so.

The Big Squeeze

You've likely noticed that you can't open a newspaper or your mailbox, or turn on a TV, radio, or computer without being flooded by political ads lately.

Even though ads aren't likely to change anyone's mind at this point, that isn't going to stop either side from dumping millions more into political advertising over the next two weeks. If you're tired of the monster of campaign advertisements choking all of us, let us remind you of something we've said for several years now.

The single biggest problem in our political system is money, in large part thanks to the Supreme Court, Citizens United, and the ideas that money is speech and corporations are - legally - people. No matter who wins, we need to make sure that after this election, we all focus on getting the money out of elections. As it is, advertising isn't the only place money is being unethically spent in this election.

The Romney family also has been putting their money into the voting machine company that will count the votes in Ohio - and that's a HUGE problem. Multiple investors and top level executives at Hart Intercivic have deep ties to the Romney family, including Mr. Romney's own son Tagg - the hothead who claimed he wanted to take a swing at the President (which is technically a Federal crime).

If you're wondering why we're not as focused on the substance of tonight's debate - foreign policy - the answer should be fairly obvious. When it comes to the facts of foreign policy, President Barack Obama and his administration have been amazingly successful during his first term.

The news that leaked out Saturday - that the U.S. and Iran may be on the verge of nuclear talks - was retracted publicly on Sunday. Because of the sources and writers associated with the news of this situation, we have no doubt that even if public talks are being denied, private talks are now likely ongoing. The steep sanctions President Obama has inflicted on Iran are driving its government closer to a diplomatic solution every day.

As far as Libya goes, as more details emerge, it appears the information given to Obama's State Department (including Susan Rice) that pointed to local non-al Qaeda militias being responsible was far more correct than the al Qaeda scare story that the right-wing has been pushing.

This is what actual diplomacy looks like under President Obama - and it's exactly the opposite of Mitt Romney's foreign policy.

Seventeen of twenty-four of Mitt Romney's foreign policy advisors are Bush era neocons, led by the same people who got us into the war in Iraq, including Dan Senor. Last week, Senor - one of the top members of a group called "The Foreign Policy Initiative" - even advocated the United States get involved with 'boots on the ground' in the civil war in Syria.

There is a serious reason why Mitt Romney remains vague about his foreign policy, and why - among all those ads swamping you right now - you will not see a single one that even comes close to describing Mitt Romney's foreign policy approach.

That's because Mitt Romney's foreign policy is the same as George W. Bush's & Dick Cheney's. Choosing Romney as our next leader very likely means Americans will keep sending our young men and women to die, for the indefinite future, into any country that doesn't bow to the bullying and cowboy diplomacy of a Mitt Romney administration.

President Obama, on the other hand got us out of war in Iraq, is pushing to get us out of Afghanistan, and - in case you forgot - President Obama is directly responsible for the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Keep these details in mind when you watch the debate tonight - which will thankfully be ad-free.

Friday Funday: Cleaning Up, Counting Down

As we're sure you're aware, the election is two weeks from next Tuesday, and the final presidential debate is next Monday.

While we're not exactly planning on resting and relaxing all weekend, we are hoping to catch up on some reading and catch some time with the family, outdoors - preferably in less windy conditions. We hope to catch a few games on TV too - along with all the hypocritical, lie-filled political ads.

In general, though, right now seems like the calm before the media storm, with no real single story dominating the media. So we're doing a little autumn clean-up today, trying to tackle a few mostly unrelated items that you may want to know about heading into the weekend.

For those of you still screaming at us about polling, the great Nate Silver over at FiveThirtyEight.com has a serious and unquestionable breakdown of why the current Gallup Daily Tracking poll isn't something you should be putting too much stock in. The other six daily tracking polls have now swung back towards the President, as we thought they would. All six say roughly the same thing: that President Obama has a slight lead, overall. The positive trend for Mr. Obama from Tuesday's big debate win is only now really being picked up by the polls, though, so most polling experts - including Nate - seem to think Obama will be doing a bit better again before the weekend is over.

Speaking of politics, if you haven't gotten involved, now is definitely the time. Today - October 19th - is the LAST day to register to vote this year in Nebraska. Registration deadlines are still open in many states, so check websites like GottaRegister.com to see if you still can register, and if you haven't done so yet, make that a priority this weekend too.

Something else we hope that you'll make a priority is fighting cancer. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, and we think this weekend is as good a time as any to get out, and get involved in that battle. There are big events scheduled this weekend around the nation, including near our offices in Washington, DC, Nebraska, and South Florida. Cancer sucks. That's something we can all agree on, regardless of our political affiliation.

No matter what you're doing this weekend, whether it's recovering from travel, cleaning up leaves, or just watching the game on TV, we hope that you get some rest. You can guarantee our staff will be getting in as much sleep as we can.

The last two weeks of Election 2012 begin next week - and we have a feeling there won't be very much time for resting again till after the election.