US Big Debate: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney meet for final time
President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney met on Monday for their third debate...
14:44 23 October 2012
Americans saw their President and the opposing nominee fight it out for a final time on Monday night, in a third debate ahead of the US election. President Barack Obama reportedly came back stronger than he appeared to be in the first debate against Mitt Romney.
The presidential debate took place at Lynn University, in Florida, and the outcome of their public battle seemed to be that the two were neck and neck throughout the night.
However, a CBS News snap poll suggested that Mr. Obama beat Mr. Romney by almost a third of votes, coming out with 53per cent, although there was 24per cent of the pollers opting for a draw.
The men focused their efforts mainly on foreign policy concerns, with Mr. Obama putting up a good fight on the night. He referred to Mr. Romney’s actions as being “all over the map”.
However, the two were in unison on many points as they agreed on topics concerning support for Israel, discussions regarding Syria and intervention, and also on the discussion of China and trading.
Mr Romney agreed with the President’s policy of withdrawing from Afghanistan by 2014 – as mentioned in a report by the BBC – despite the Republican formerly disagreeing with this idea.
But it wasn’t all friendly coercion, as Mr. Romney made a strong attack at Mr. Obama's foreign policy, saying that the President was responsible for “chaos” in the Middle East. As referred to in the same BBC reported, he stated that Mr. Obama had allowed al-Qaeda to take advantage.
The evening ended with both politicians referring to the US economy, and as reported by The Telegraph, Mr. Obama appealed to voters by relating to employment.
He said: “I want to build on our strengths. And I've put forward a plan to make sure that we're bringing manufacturing jobs back to our shores by rewarding companies and small businesses that are investing here, not overseas.”
Americans will be casting their vote on November 6th, and with two weeks to go, the two oppositions are expected to give their best efforts with their campaigns as it is not certain at this point who will reach the finishing line first.