It was obvious to pretty much everyone watching last night’s debate that Mitt Romney decided to co-opt Barack Obama’s foreign policy: whether the issue was targeting Al Qaeda, withdrawing from Iraq or Afghanistan, sanctions and negotiations with Iran, the handling of Egyptian revolution, or the use of drones for counter-terrorism, Romney was happy to say “me too” over and over again.

The big question is whether or not this was a strategically sound decision. The Romney camp’s logic was presumably threefold: 1.) The key issue in the election is the economy, not foreign affairs; 2.) Romney is far less fluent in foreign policy than domestic policy, so the potential for mistakes is much higher; 3.) whether or not Romney agrees with Obama’s foreign policy record, the American people rate it reasonably highly, so there isn’t a huge percentage in attacking it.

These all added up to a compelling rationale, and Romney’s decision may prove right in the end. But my gut tells me Team Romney may have outsmarted itself here. Romney’s underlying assumption seemed to be that you can fight to a draw in a foreign-policy debate simply by fighting to a draw on policy (or, as the case may be, not fighting at all). But I don’t think that’s how these things work in practice. Debates are a zero sum game. Just because there isn’t a contrast between the two candidates on policy doesn’t mean audiences don’t perceive a contrast. It just means they look for contrasts along other dimensions.

Specifically, when you eliminate any policy differences you have with the president, you encourage voters to judge you on character and competence. Regarding the first, what audiences saw the president do all night long was lay out his vision for how the country should project its influence abroad and defend that vision pretty vigorously. What they saw the challenger do was basically back away at every opportunity. The effect of this was heightened, I think, by Obama’s repeated mentions of previous areas of disagreement—Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran—that Romney simply folded on.

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