Obama, Romney
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (L) makes a point while answering a question from moderator Bob Schieffer as U.S. President Barack Obama (R) listens during the final U.S. presidential debate in Boca Raton, Florida October 22, 2012. REUTERS/Michael Reynolds/Pool

For the final time this election cycle, President Barack Obama and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney came face-to-face.

The president and his Republican challenger went back on forth on foreign policy in a debate moderated by CBS' Bob Schieffer.

According to a CBS News instant poll, 53 percent of voters said Obama won the debate, 23 percent thought Romney won and 24 percent thought that the debate was a tie.

The poll also showed that 49 percent of voters trust Romney to handle an international crisis while 71 percent trust the president.

A CNN/ORC poll showed 48 percent believed Obama won, while 40 percent believed Romney did. The poll revealed that nearly 60 percent of debate-watchers thought that Obama did a better job than they had expected and 44 percent who said that the GOP governor had a better than expected debate performance.

"A majority of debate watchers said that President Obama seemed to be the stronger leader," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "But on the question of likeability, the two candidates are essentially tied on a trait that has generally been an advantage for Obama. That's probably due to the fact that two-thirds of debate watchers felt that Obama spent more time than Mitt Romney on the attack."

CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen and an adviser to Democratic and Republican presidents said its "striking that neither the second debate, or the third debate seemed to change the overall race, at least in the early hours."

"The second debate, the president clearly won and yet people came out saying that Romney would do a better job handling the economy," Gergen said on CNN. "In this final debate the president won again, yet the poll clearly suggests that Romney passed the commander in chief test."

In the series of debates, the president slimly beat Romney. Romney was a clear winner in the first debate, and the president edged out Romney on the last two.

To read the remarks made by both candidates last night, click here.

© 2025 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.