Presidential Campaign

In the second presidential debate, Mitt Romney dug himself deeper into the hole on immigration. While both candidates traded barbs, for Romney they stung more. Romney refused to address the 12 million undocumented immigrants already living in the country while at the same time touching bad nerves when he called undocumented immigrants "illegals".

The President Obama of yore (2008, that is) showed up at the debate last night and so was hailed the victor. In fact, the numbers show that it was not that Romney faltered. He did not. Rather it was the president who recovered from his first debate 'debacle' (as viewed by his strongest supporters).

The numbers reveal the story. First, keep this number in mind: 7.4. This is the grade level of Obama's most widely hailed speech, the "Yes, We Can!" Grant Park victory speech. 'Yes, We Can!" is widely perceived as a classic to be enshrined in the American Oratory Hall of Fame along side Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream," Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address,' and Ronald Reagan's "City on a Hill" speeches.

For the second straight presidential debate, the top trending meme related to one of the least sensational aspects of the contest: the presidential transition period. With due respect to “Big Bird”, the interchange in the first debate over Romney’s  “busy first day” and in the second day over “Binders full of women”, drew chuckles and rapid tweeting and re-tweeting.  What makes each of these comments interesting, though, is that, while they were clearly not a part of the prepared debate quips, they address a critical issue: how Governor Romney would actually transition into office if elected.

One of the highlights of last night’s presidential debate was moderator Candy Crowley’s real-time fact-checking about when President Barrack Obama first used the word “terror” in reference to the murders in Benghazi. We needed such quick corrections in the first debates on another important issue.
In those debates inaccurate statements were made about how allowing the Bush-era tax cuts for the richest 2 percent of Americans to expire on schedule at year-end would affect small-business owners. 

Forget policy and details. Last night's presidential town hall debate at Hofstra University in New York was about each candidate's acting in the political theatre. Could President Obama atone for his lackluster display in the first debate without appearing too aggressive? Could Mitt Romney maintain the aura from the first debate in Denver of an authentic presidential alternative?

We had answers within the 90 minutes.“Can Obama Rebound?” is now the question of the past. “Can Romney Re-surge?” takes over.

Just three months ago at Thomas Jefferson’s historic home, Monticello, 81 citizens were freshly minted in an annual Independence Day naturalization ceremony. One after the other these new citizens took to the podium and spoke with anticipation about voting for the first time in this Presidential election year. For their convenience a voter registration tent was even erected on Monticello’s lawn. Lucky them.

For hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens living overseas, election day means barbeques, embassy functions, and following the election results on TV or the Internet. But for many of us, that’s as far as it goes, because we are not part of the electoral process. Most U.S. citizens born overseas cannot vote. These citizens are disenfranchised, not because of criminal records, voter ID laws, or clerical errors, but simply because legislation never bothered to catch up with them.

In the midst of a heated presidential campaign, it seems nearly impossible to pull away from the noise of political personas and consider the issues simply on their own. Yet that is what voters across the nation were asked to do in a poll released Monday, and they made their voices heard. 

Republicans, Democrats, and Independents across the nation were presented with three hypothetical candidates — “Smith,” “Jones,” and “Miller” — with three varying foreign policy stances. Each candidate statement discussed America’s role in the world and the best strategies to advance our interests abroad. When voters were asked who was the most compelling, who would be most likely to earn their vote, a clear favorite emerged. That candidate emphasized one approach above all else: international cooperation.

A lot can change in 13 days. When the presidential debate takes place tonight it will be that long since the last debate, and Gov. Romney will likely change any aspect of his foreign policy stance that he believes it politically expedient to change or minimize. He has been doing a lot of that lately. What he will not be able to change is the fact that his lack of experience, understanding, and credibility on national security and foreign policy would be a detriment to America’s security. We have seen in candidate Romney a leadership void, a string of policies that lack originality, and a dedication to dogma that harkens back to the Bush policies that in the last decade marred the global standing of our nation. 

On September 11, 2012, four Americans, Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith and American security officers Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, were brutally attacked and murdered at an American compound in Benghazi, Libya. At the time, the administration blamed this senseless attack on a protest in reaction to an obscure internet video and failed to acknowledge what it really was - an act of terrorism.

On the eleventh anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on our nation, the brave men and women serving our country at the  U.S. consulate in Bengazi, Libya came under fire, resulting in the death of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. The attackers targeted our mission in Libya, a critical undertaking in a nation struggling to rebuild after civil war, because of what it stands for: the very freedoms and rights that define and strengthen our great country – Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion chief among them. Under ordinary circumstances, an attack of this level, with this much devastation, would elicit many routine questions, but the aftermath of this attack left more.