Mitt Romney and President Obama greet each other at the final presidential debate in Boca Raton, Fla. (AFP/Getty Images)
BOCA RATON, Fla. — Forget diplomacy, President Obama was dropping the bombs in his final debate against Mitt Romney.
With the race on the line and polls shifting against him, Obama delivered his most polished performance in the third and final debate — which focused on foreign policy — as he repeatedly tried to trump Romney by playing the commander-in-chief card.
“I know you haven’t been in a position to actually execute foreign policy — but every time you’ve offered an opinion, you’ve been wrong,” Obama sniped.
Romney stood his ground.
“Attacking me is not an agenda,” he said.
It was one of the Republican’s best comebacks of the evening, reminding voters that Obama has focused much of his campaign on tearing down Romney.
“Attacking me is not talking about how we’re going to deal with the challenges that exist in the Middle East, and take advantage of the opportunity there, and stem the tide of this violence,” Romney said.
GOODWIN: MEANINGLESS WIN (IF THAT’S WHAT IT WAS)
PODHORETZ: ROMNEY GETS IT DONE
BATTLE OF THE CELEBRITY PRESIDENTIAL ENORSEMENTS
Romney, with no experience in international affairs, got through the debate without committing a gaffe. That may be enough for his campaign to call the night a success, since Romney presented himself as a competent and capable leader.
Obama aggressively went after Romney from the start, scoffing at his rival’s inexperience on global matters and hitting him with several stinging put-downs early in the debate.
Obama chided Romney for purportedly saying that Russia — not terrorism — was the biggest threat to America.
“The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back,” Obama quipped.
“The Cold War’s been over for 20 years,” he continued. “When it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s.”
Obama appeared to have an arsenal of one-liners at the ready.
As Romney has often done on the campaign trail, he criticized the president’s planned $1 trillion in defense cuts by citing the shrinking US Navy.
“Our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917,” Romney said, borrowing a line from his stump speech.
Obama was ready for that one.
“Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed,” he said.
“We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines,” he snarked.
“The question is not a game of Battleship, where we’re counting ships.”
Romney slammed Obama for his “apology tour,” referring to speeches the president made in the Middle East early in his term that Romney has described as critical of the US role in the region.
Obama flat-out denied it.
“This has been probably the biggest whopper that’s been told during this campaign,” he responded.
Romney failed to effectively hit Obama for the administration’s conflicting response to the terrorist attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, which killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Romney didn’t press Obama on that tragic subject — considered a major vulnerability — even when moderator Bob Schiefer brought it up.
Instead, Obama seized the opportunity and dug up the second- biggest corpse of his administration, after Osama bin Laden: Libya’s Moammar Khadafy.
“When it came time to making sure that Khadafy did not stay in power, that he was captured, Governor, your suggestion was that this was mission creep, that this was mission muddle,” Obama said. “Imagine if we had pulled out at that point. You know, Moammar Khadafy had more American blood on his hands than any individual other than Osama bin Laden.”
In a series of contentious exchanges, the two rivals clashed on a wide range of fronts:
* On Syria: Romney called for arming the rebels, but said, “We should be playing the leadership role there, not on the ground with military. I don’t want to have our military involved in Syria.”
“We are playing the leadership role,” shot back Obama.
* On Israel: Romney faulted Obama for never visiting the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East after his election. “You skipped Israel . . . but you went to the other nations, and by the way, they noticed that you skipped Israel.”
A CNN/ORC poll of registered voters who watched the debate showed that 48 percent said Obama fared better, compared with 40 percent who said Romney had the best showing.
Obama was hoping a strong performance on foreign policy would break Romney’s recent momentum in the polls.