I sent Chris Wallace a note tonight to tell him that the Marine Corps still has hundreds of thousands of state of the art bayonets. In 1916 the USA only had a few thousand brittle 15 year old bayonets

If the game tonight was Checkers, Obama won. But it was Chess. Romney won.

#1 remember when our troops in Afghanistan asked for horses.

Don't worry, Jonah, Mitt will be landing all the right punches in all the right places in the next two weeks..for the betterment of all.

To follow along with #2, check mate, indeed.

I seem to remember SecDef Rumsfeld being proud of a picture he kept framed in his office of special forces riding horses in Afghanistan.

Tonight's foreign policy debate regarding the Middle East missed the point entirely. We replaced two stable governments with two unstable ones, Egypt and Libya. Egypt's Mubarak had a modus vivendi with the Israelis which pretty much guaranteed the safety and stability of their border with Egypt.The overthrow of Mubarak puts that in doubt.

Libya had not constituted a threat to us in more than eight years since GW Bush threw a scare into Ghadaffi.

Our foolish leader destroyed all of that stability with his support of insurgents against the regime on the naive and foolish notion that they were seeking a democratic form of government. (Yay!) He threw us into the position where the rise of Islam in the two countries constitutes a bigger threat to us and Mideast peace than ever.

Romney couldn't bring all of that up because he has to deal with the situation that exists and hope for the best. Obama couldn't bring it up because,once a nit, always a nit.

Nothing too memorable and nothing to make people switch from Romney to Obama.
Tomorrow Romney and Ryan can point out that the military still uses bayonets and horses, which apparently is a surprise to the (short term) Commander in Chief.

Oh, Jonah. All night I was trying to find the right words to describe Obama's evil stare, but you nailed it perfectly: "as if to force the former governor into spontaneous human combustion." Just perfect.

Romney seemed to play it so safe tonight, I started to think that he knows something else is going to happen soon that will severely damage Obama.

I couldn't watch the debate -- cannot look at Obama without retching. It was on in the background behind me and Obama came off as very petty and petulent. Romney said a couple times "attacking me is not an agenda." I thought that was a good way to throw Obama off his game.

Clearly, the Romney team calculated that he merely needed to not make any glaring mistakes tonight to assure a win on Nov 6. From a pure strategy standpoint, I can't disagree. This was a safe move.

But I have to admit I'm disappointed. It seems to me that something very important needed to be said tonight, and wasn't. And what needed to be said and unequivocally established is that the President of the United States, our Commander in Chief, should never have it granted as acceptable to sit watching one of our consulates under attack for 7 hours, seeing the desperate cables pleading for help from our ambassador, and do nothing.

It doesn't matter if help was too far away. It doesn't matter if it was impossible to save them. What matters is that every American citizen should be able to sleep safely at night knowing with absolute certainty that the President would TRY to save them.

Mr. President, you failed that basic test. THAT needed to be said.

#10,if I were there I'd give you a cigar.

Great analysis.

Agree with #8, Obama's shifty eyes looked downright evil tonight.

"Meanwhile, Obama looked a bit desperate at times, particularly when he was staring at Romney as if to force the former governor into spontaneous human combustion." Thanks for that comment, Mr. Goldberg - perfect, just perfect (and laugh-out-loud funny to boot).

I noticed that while the President was staring at Mr. Romney, he (the President) was also blinking rat-a-tat-tat, machine gun style. What was all that about - some kind of desperate eyelid Morse Code to his aides?

IIRC, the Italians say that giving someone the Malocchio is a sign of envy and jealousy.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, eh Barri? He glowered at MR like the HS cheerleader dumped by the quarterback.

It seems that the 'community organizer's' international community organizing in North Africa and the Middle East has produced what community organizing often does -- the new &/or last state is worse than the first/original situation. I am not sure he and his minions have yet learned that lesson!

Romney was great from beginning to end. His demeanor was perfect. His strategy, flawless.

Jonah's spontaneous combustion comparison was excellent. I thought it looked like the practiced glare of boxers as the ref gives the ground rules of the bout. It the trash talk glare.

#13 I noticed the blinking, too. Obama's lids were going a mile a minute. I think it showed he was under a lot of stress. Or, it showed the strain of holding back all that rage. Or, both. It was very noticeable.

I can't wait for the day we kick his nasty, little butt out of our presidency and the pushup queen with him.