Obama’s Blunder Was in Ceding Political Center to Romney

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The third and final presidentialdebate did little to change the race between President BarackObama and Mitt Romney, who are tied with just two weeks to go.Even so, this week’s inconsequential contest provides a key ofsorts to understanding the election.

In the first debate -- which was consequential and thensome -- Romney abruptly changed from the severely conservativeRepublican he’d presented to voters during the primaries to thereassuringly pragmatic moderate he’d seemed as governor ofMassachusetts. It was an audacious move, and one that strainscredulity, in two respects: for the sheer distance in ideologyhe had to walk back, and for the timing, because he left thissecond outrageous pivot so late in the campaign.