Romney has avoided that problem. He went in the rose garden and said this was an act of terror. We got to name this condition hes going through. Russia, this is without question our number one geopolitical foe. Im not familiar with precisely with what exactly i said. I think its called romnesia. But i stand by what i said, whatever it was. We are just hours from the third and final debate of 2012, and tonight is the last chance for these candidates to command an audience of millions and to persuade voters that they deserve the trust of the American People for the next four years. Both the president and mitt romney have arrived here in boca raton, florida, and as they take the stage tonight, the polls could not be tighter. The race is dead even at 47 according to our new nbc news wall street journal poll. The president still leads on the commander in chief question, but that gap is narrowing, down from seven points to just three. Now within the margin of error. With tonights focus on Foreign Policy, its a matter of trust. First, in order to deal with our greatest enemies, you have to know who they are. Governor romney not too long ago said, you know, the Russian Federation is our number one geostrategic threat. Well, come on. Think. Come on, mitt, think. When you have no Foreign Policy experience, you better think of a scapegoat to get the base going. Ill crack down on china. When he talks about getting tough on china, keep in mind that governor romney invested in companies that were pioneers of outsourcing to china and is currently investing in countries in companies that are building surveillance equipment for china to spy on its own folks. Thats governor, youre the last person who is going to get tough on china. Okay, china, china might be problematic. So why not fuel a politically motivated Conspiracy Theory about the deaths of four americans, including our ambassador to libya. One of the narratives that the Obama Campaign has laid out is that bin laden is dead, they bragged about that forever, and al qaeda is in retreat. You start to wonder, did they basically say do not allow any story to emerge that counters that narrative . Hes asking the president of the United States to get to the bottom of why there has been an impenetrable fog around his Administration Since september 11th or since september 12th, 2001, where its been very difficult to get straight answers. Did you notice that little slip of the tongue . Its been very difficult to get straight answers since september the 11th, 2001. Well, i guess thats a bit of a freudian slip because it was during the dark days of the Bush Administration that he rose to the heights of the spin machine telling americans daily that everything was plain sailing over in iraq. As we said, tonight its all about trust. Lets get right to our panel now. Holding down the fort in new york city is msnbc political analyst karen finney. In washington, dana milbank a Political Columnist for the Washington Post and here in florida, michael hastings. Great to have you here. Mike, if i can start with you, given the fact that 17 of mr. Romneys Foreign Policy advisers out of 24 are all from the Bush Administration, thats 70 , shouldnt george bush be the one here for this debate . Wouldnt he be the right person. The ma man you put on earlier was the chief spokesperson during the worst days of the American Occupation of iraq. The fact that hes one of governor romneys top advisers is very concerning. I think in terms of the Foreign Policy issue that youre dealing with now, afghanistan, iraq, these were legacy Foreign Policy issues that obama inherited and had to fix. He withdrew from iraq and he decided to escalate in afghanistan. Karen, romney at least in public is sprinting away from his neocon advisers quicker than usain bolts 100 meter record but isnt his Foreign Policy as befuddled as his economic plan. He attacks the president but doesnt offer a specific plan on aflg, on taliban, on iran, nothing. Thats exactly right. Here we are back to boca, baby. Its an opportunity, remember, this was the scene of the crime of the 47 . Its also where mitt romney said, oh, with the middle east, you kick the can down the road and nothing is really going to happen and that if there was a Foreign Policy crisis in the context of the campaign, hed take advantage of it. So i hope president obama will, you know, use those openings to press him on some of these things. I think as you saw joe biden do during the Vice President ial debate. Lets talk about iran or syria or afghanistan. Are we talking about more troops on the ground because a majority of americans dont want that, and so hes basically saying he wants to do everything obama has basically done, and so i hope obama really presses him to say what else would you do because i dont think he has an answer and he certainly cant say i will commit to troops which dan tried to walk away from on the today show. Remarkably show. Dana, iran and not russia remains this planets number one geopolitical foe. The president has corralled an international coalition, sanctions are devastating the iranian economy. Tell me something that mitt romney would do in relation to iran that the president has not done. Tell me, dana. Well, martin, he can start a war, and we thats right. He can start a war. Its been a while since we had a good war. Not for ten years. Absolutely. Were about due for one, and i suspect this is the sort of the quandary that mitt romney has. He wants to be critical of the obama Foreign Policy, but obama has basically been following what is a centrist mainstream, consensus, realist policy. Whats the alternative . Its the neocons. We saw where that got us. He has imported a bunch of neocons because that is the republican idealistic alternative right now. You have this tension between what romneys instincts seem to be which are fairly sensible but then he has no difference from obama and introducing a criticism brings us back to the days of the neocons being dominant in the pentagon. Martin, if i may go ahead. I think its important to underscore what is a difference. If governor romney is going to follow a kneow cons, a majority of americans, if you go down the line, those are not the policies americans want. Even on an issue like iran but you never tells you the truth. This is serious, karen. Six months ago he was the most aggressive individual out of all the candidates talking up a potential what i thought was a potential invasion of iran, but now he doesnt want anything to do with that. How can you believe that . I think thats why the president really has to try to press him to point out he doesnt have in the case of iran as dana just said, the only other thing to do would be to start a war. He cant say that because the majority of americans dont want to do that and a majority of americans actually agree with sort of the progressive multilateral approach to Foreign Policy the president has been taking. The one big difference, mike, between these two men, however, is the military budget. Right. And mr. Romney has told us that he would like to spend exponentially on the military. So that is a major difference. How does the president address that tonight without undermining his own commitment to the military service and the forces of this nation . I think the largest point were making across the board about romneys Foreign Policy is it is a shape shifting Foreign Policy. His positions have all shifted right during this last month. In terms of the military budget, the way president obama has to handle that question and will handle that question is say, look, i speak to the pentagon every day. They do not need 2 trillion more. They have a lot of money as it is. Were actually not cutting anything from them. These are all future cuts. Theres not going to be significant job loss and were going to reinvest that money into alternative and domestic programs. Thats the answer hes going to give. We do not need to spend we spend 3 trillion in iraq and afghanistan. We spend 20 billion on air conditioning in afghanistan last year. I want to get to dana. Dont forget that the president s budget actually says, hey, lets filt a 21st century war. Shift from Ground Forces to intelligence, to other forms which is basically the recommendations of the 9 11 commission. So also romneys ideas are outdated. Indeed. Dana, final question to you. Mitt romney does have something of an advantage tonight, doesnt he . Because okay hes got to Foreign Policy experience, but he has got his overseas trip, for example, to the United Kingdom where he insulted the management of the olympics or when he went to israel and insulted the palestinians. Or indeed, when he came here to boca and was secretly captured suggesting the palestinians did not want peace and that he didnt think there was any possible resolution in the future anyway. Well, and his horse did very badly in the olympics so the whole thing has been a debacle. But he has had some success overseas in the Cayman Islands and in switzerland and in the absolutely. In bermuda, i believe. Bermuda, absolutely. Absolutely. Michael hastings, karen finney, and dana milbank, what a start. Thank you all. Our special debate coverage continues throughout this evening. Ill join Chris Matthews for a special live post debate show so keep it here on msnbc. Next, the richest man in congress sticks his golden heeled boot directly into his mouth again. Stay with us. Americas not in decline. Here is what it is, romney and ryan are in denial. [ male announcer ] alkaseltzer plus presents the cold truth. I have a cold. I took dayquil, but i still have a runny nose. Ryan are in denial. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesnt work on runny noses. What . [ male announcer ] it doesnt have an antihistamine. Really . [ male announcer ] really. Alkaseltzer plus cold and cough fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a fast acting antihistamine to relieve your runny nose. [ sighs ] thank you [ male announcer ] youre welcome. Thats the cold truth [ male announcer ] alkaseltzer plus. 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Foreign policy magazine quotes an Unnamed State Department official who says no one there had a chance to vet the material beforehand. Whats more, this is the same darrell issa who some would say hypocritically derided wikileaks almost two years ago for doing exactly what hes done now. The kind of transparency we need is not to have somebody outing what is said by diplomats in private, and we need to change that and thats going to be a big part of our committees oversight is to get that right so diplomats can do their job with confident dense. The kind of transparency we need is not to have somebody outing what is said by diplomats in private. Fine words, mr. Issa. A pity you dont seem to remember them in an election year. Joining us thousand is democratic congressman elijah cummings, the oversight committees ranking democrat. Good to be with you. Chairman issas document dump included disclosures about a fee meal human rights activists, a ben ghazi port manager and a militia commander providing information. Is he happy to expose these individuals to threats, perhaps even death, to provide fodder for mitt romneys debate performance this evening . I believe theres no other way of seeing this, martin. I have said constantly that this kind of event that happened to our ambassador deserves a very careful investigation and one thats bipartisan, and clearly what happened here is mr. Issa rushed to do a hearing a few days ago, and then he rushed to get these documents out, even jeopardizing our relationships with other governments, jeopardizing libyans who had been cooperating with us, putting their lives in danger. Just so that he could provide mr. Romney with some talking points for tonights debate. Thats what this is all about. Hes rushing basically in his letter to the president , by the way, just recently he said he wanted answers immediately with regard to what happened in this incident and its clear that weve got two investigations going on right now, one by the fbi, and one ordered by secretary clinton, and this is going to take time to get this information together, but, again, he wants to rush so that he can have some impact on the election and on the debate. Yeah, because chairman issa is now fighting back with regard to the female human rights activist saying that her identity had previously been exposed. Sources at the state department say that he did not even have the courtesy to run the information by them before dumping his documents. So if mr. Issa is happy to expose these libyans to potential reprisals, is it also the case he treats the state department with a similar amount of complete contempt . No doubt about it. You have a situation here where the state department requested that he cooperate with them and work with them so that they would not place folks in jeopardy and do damage to our government relationships, and he went on and did it anyway. And then as far as this one person is concerned, thats only one person, and shes very important, but there are many other folks that have been placed in jeopardy here, too, martin, and he seems to disregard that. I think that if we are going to be about the business of safeguarding our people, as he says he wants to, this is the wrong way to do it. As a matter of fact, all hes done is placed a lot of people in harms way. But again, this is about politics. This is about trying to make sure that damage is done to the excellent record that this president has with regard to national security, and i think thats what its all about. Congressman, its also my understanding that on october the 9th, mr. Issa used a particular word to describe the state departments worries about releasing the information found in these documents. What was that word . He used the word that is crap and basically said he could release anything he wanted to release, and i got to tell you, martin, our committee is a very important committee. It has more power than just about any committee in congress with regards to investigations, but when we get that information, martin, we have a duty to safeguard it. We must do no harm, and clearly we have a situation here where mr. Issa single handedly without the advice of any of the many members of the committee or any of the other committees in congress decided that he was going to dump this information again trying to do mr. Romney a big favor. Congressman elijah cummings, i think its clear the only person spouting excrementicious matter is darryl issa himself. I dont agree with that. I say we have to go back to the clinton tax rates and get the hell out of afghanistan. Mans got a point, doesnt he . I want to get the hell out of here. Anncr every president inherits challenges. Few have faced so many. Four years later. Our enemies have been brought to justice. Our heroes are coming home. Assembly lines are humming again. There are still challenges to meet. Children to educate. A middle class to rebuild. But the last thing we should do is turn back now. President obama im barack obama and. I approve this message. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. And that their Homeowners Insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesnt. Stop pretending. Only Flood Insurance covers floods. Visit floodsmart. Gov pretend to learn your risk. [ male announcer ] its time for medicare open enrollment. Are you ready . Time to compare plans and see whats new. You dont have to make changes, but its good to look. 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