Last night's debate focused on foreign policy. And, besides the two huge detours into domestic issues, we learned that there really isn't much daylight between the two candidates on the major foreign policy issues of the day, including Libya, the Middle East, Syria, Egypt, and the U.S.'s role in the world, Israel, and Iran. The differences, if there were any at all, occurred in the form of subtle nuances, mostly in the tepid retort of "I would have taken action sooner."
Last night’s debate, however, offered two really good things. The first, which has really been absent in the previous debates, were the great quips and zingers the candidates rolled out to try to accentuate the few differences they had on foreign policy.
Right out of the box, on Obama's policy in the Middle East, Governor Mitt Romney said, "We can't kill our way out of this mess."
Obama later returned the favor. On Romney's criticism of military cuts, Obama quipped, "You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines."
Then, on Iran, and the beginning of Obama's term, Romney retorted, "I think they saw weakness where they had expected to find American strength" and continued by calling Obama's first Middle East trip "an apology tour."
However, Obama got the final word of the debate, at least on the good zingers. On a brief detour from the discussion on China, Obama referred to the auto bailout, saying "If we had taken your advice Governor Romney about our auto industry, we'd be buying cars from China instead of selling cars to China." And then, at the end of another tangent from the China issue, after an exchange on who was telling the truth, Obama quipped, "Governor Romney, you keep on trying to, you know airbrush history here."
The second, and perhaps more important, good thing about this debate was the opportunity to hear each candidate's view and vision on the U.S.-China relationship. In this case, we heard some good things...and some not so good things.
Governor Romney started out by saying the China was really no different than us. They want a stable world with no war and no protectionism. He even held out the hope that China could be a partner to the United States in these efforts, if China was responsible. But then Governor Romney repeated his commitment to cite China as a manipulator on Day One of his administration. Asked whether this declaration would cause a trade war, Governor Romney said a trade war would hurt China more than the United States, implying that, therefore a trade war would not happen.
Then, Romney went on a tangent, interchanging complaints about the growing U.S. trade deficit with China with highlighted concerns with China stealing technology and conducting rampant counterfeiting. With apparel, footwear, and fashion accessories consistently ranking in the top five most counterfeit products seized at U.S. ports, and with most of that product coming from China, we applaud Governor Romney for highlighting the scourge of counterfeiting, but we would have wanted to hear solutions to resolving this critical issue instead focusing on currency.
Meanwhile, President Obama, after going off on "off shore tax breaks" and then going into a tangent on the auto industry bailout, touted his record on enforcement, including the Chinese tire case. President Obama pivoted by noting that China's currency was at its strongest point since 1993.
President Obama then pointed out that U.S. exports to China have doubled since he took office. We in the U.S. apparel and footwear industry, the four million Americans that help you get dressed every day, know this all too well. As we noted last week, China has been the fastest AAFA's growing market for U.S.-made and U.S.-branded apparel and footwear over the last few years. And, as we highlighted in recent publication of AAFA's ApparelStats 2012, China has run the trifecta for our industry. China is now the #1 market for U.S. cotton exports, the #2 market for U.S. yarn exports, and the #3 market for U.S. fabric exports.
Finally, while not mentioning it by name, President Obama touted the negotiation of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement. President Obama touted "...organizing trade relations with countries other than China" not only as an economic bulwark in the region against China, but as an example to China of the benefits they would receive if they abided by international trade rules. While we applaud President Obama for raising the issue, it would have been great if he actually mentioned the TPP by name.
So, in the end, we saw two candidates debate for 90 minutes on foreign policy where the only real differences were the zingers. However, we did see a clear difference on each candidate's approach to China.
With last night's debate, we are done. The four debates (see debate 1, debate 2, and vice presidential debate recaps) have offered voters a clear vision of each candidate on the issues that matter. Now, it's your turn. Step up and vote.