Round One

AP

As planned by the commission on debates, most of the night was devoted to foreign policy and there we give the clear edge to Mr. McCain. This is the ground where the 72-year-old is most comfortable, and you could see it in his self-confidence, as well as his command of history and facts. He showed it too in the specificity of his answers, notably on Russia: Watch Ukraine, he said, and "the Crimea," because Vladimir Putin's Georgian expedition is a prelude to Russian adventurism there.

Mr. Obama was well briefed, but almost in the way a Ph.D. candidate gives his dissertation defense. He knew the subject but without the conviction or detail that comes from wide experience. One surprise: Mr. Obama declared that both Georgia and Ukraine should get an immediate action plan to enter NATO. This is welcome as a policy matter, though we have our doubts how much this conviction would hold up in an Obama Administration as Mr. Putin growled and made trouble for the U.S. in Iran and Eastern Europe.


Click here for complete story.

Source: Wall Street Journal