RUMBLE TONIGHT – AT 8:47 A.M. ET:  The final presidential debate, from Boca Raton, Florida, will be held tonight.  The subject will be foreign policy.  Since it's the last debate, and given the subject, I'd imagine there'll be an audience falloff.  I'd also imagine there are fewer persuadables out there.

CBS's Bob Schieffer will moderate.  Schieffer is an old pro, but, make no mistake about it, he's a liberal.  He's moderated many of these events, and some feel he's tilted the discussions a bit toward his side, but not obnoxiously so.  From NewsBusters:

He surely won’t jump in as an activist conservative moderator. A review of the record shows Schieffer has tilted left in his previous visits to the presidential debate stage, and his approach as a CBS correspondent and anchor is that of a conventional establishment liberal...

...Schieffer’s bias, like his career, goes back decades. Right now, it’s up to him how he approaches tonight’s debate: He can choose to be a neutral moderator, like Jim Lehrer did at the first debate, and let the candidates mix it up if they wish. Or he can choose the path of Martha Raddatz and Candy Crowley, and step into the fray as a participant.

I think a better balance among moderators will be called for in 2016.  Of the four moderators this year, all have been liberals, although Jim Lehrer might bridle at being labeled.  He's the only one who, thus far, didn't make his feelings known.  I'm guessing that Schieffer, having seen the scolding that Candy Crowley took, will try to play it reasonably straight tonight, but, as noted, that's a guess.

On substance, Romney should have Obama for lunch.  Our foreign policy is a mess.  We are losing everywhere, and even former administration officials have chided the Obama crowd.  The Libya scandal is growing, not receding.

Romney showed, in the first debate, that he can take it to Obama strongly, yet remain respectful of the office.  He was vigorous, informed, and mighty.  He failed in the second debate, which allowed Obama to blunt the Romney momentum.  Tonight he must give no quarter.  Obama will announce once again that he "got" bin Laden.  Romney should snap back that the Navy SEALs got bin Laden.  They're the ones who risked their lives.  Romney should accuse Obama of being the first president in history to take credit for a military operation.  Usually presidents give credit to the troops but benefit from the glow.  And Romney must then tick off the foreign-policy failures of this president, beginning with his groveling to Islamic radicals.

Libya will come up.  Romney gets a second chance.  He blew the first one last week.  He'll be ready.

And he must argue that a strong foreign policy depends on a strong economy, repeating his economic message. 

The election is two weeks from tomorrow.  No room for error.

October 22,  2012