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Bob Schieffer never says never, but if Monday night's presidential debate was the last one he ever moderates, he’ll survive. He’s also not at all torn up about the fact that he accidentally called Osama bin Laden “Obama bin Laden.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina attempted to squash rumors that the president's reelection team is preparing to shift resources from places like North Carolina to more vulnerable states. "We are tied or ahead in every battleground state, and we're not leaving any state where we're tied or ahead," Messina told reporters Tuesday.

Debate viewers may have noticed that the topic of discussion Monday night shifted several times from the designated theme of foreign policy to more domestic issues, and most of them probably didn't care. That’s because Americans aren’t particularly interested in foreign policy.

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You’d think a shirtless Paul Ryan riding a horse and wielding a bayonet would just make sense. Apparently dreams of such a super-soldier are just not meant to be. The vice presidential candidate said that he “just doesn’t understand” Obama’s comparison of American battleships with bayonets.

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Mr. President, why so angry? What’s up with that gloomy edge and the sour mood?Aside from all the bewildering back-and-forth about Libya, Iran, apology tours, and auto bailouts, by far the most important aspect of the third and final presidential debate involved its atmospherics—which candidate came across as more calming and confident, more plausible and reassuring as commander-in-chief? Which of the contenders, in other words, emerged from their final confrontation looking like a leader, frontrunner, and ultimate winner?In that regard Barack Obama helped himself with his fluent command of foreign affairs and passionate engagement with the disparate subjects under discussion.

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President Obama passed the largest anti-recession stimulus in American history, bigger than the spending programs of the New Deal relative to the economy.He pushed through the grand health reform for which Democrats have yearned since the 1930s.

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The emir of Qatar became the first head of state to visit the Gaza Strip in 13 years on Tuesday, in a trip called “astounding” by Israel. Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani crossed into Gaza from Egypt with a large international delegation, and was given the VIP treatment by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh—and his archrival, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, saying he hoped the visit would not undermine efforts to rebuild Palestine.

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The first debate had Big Bird, the second had “binders full of women,” and it looks like the third is claiming “horses and bayonets” as its catchphrase—and this one was uttered by President Obama. On Monday night, Obama slammed Mitt Romney for saying the Navy has fewer ships now than it did in 1916, retorting “Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed.

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The early results are in: President Obama won the third and final debate on Monday night. A CNN snap poll had 48 percent of registered voters saying Obama won the debate, with just 40 percent putting it as a win in Mitt Romney’s territory.

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In the mainstream rock world, the battle lines have already been drawn.While President Obama has attracted the support of the Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, who penned a short missive backing Obama’s reelection effort, Team Romney has the decidedly less hip Kid Rock, 3 Doors Down, Nickelback, and others in his back pocket.

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Both men approached Monday’s debate behaving as if President Obama were the underdog. The president was clearly the more aggressive of the two and Governor Romney less so, playing it safe while putting his knowledge on display to pass the commander-in-chief test.

Big Bird, Binders Full of Women, and, now, Horses and Bayonets. The funniest meme photos from the latest debate catchphrase.

Barack Obama didn’t win tonight’s foreign-policy debate. Neither did Mitt Romney. George W. Bush did.Bush won it because the framework for understanding the world that he put in place after Sept. 11 still holds, even though it wildly distorts the world that the next president will actually face.

“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.”Mitt Romney’s apparent obsession with that slogan, used by the small-town high-school football team depicted on the now-defunct TV series Friday Night Lights, is a real head-scratcher. It came up once more during the fourth and final debate—a topsy-turvy affair in Boca Raton, Fla.

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Tonight's debate reminded me of that Saturday Night Live sketch from the 2000 debate in which Darrell Hammond's Al Gore answered, "I agree" to everything said by Will Ferrell's George W. Bush. On Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, Romney again and again repudiated any substantial policy difference between himself and the president.