The third debate is to focus on foreign policy which to my amazement is supposed to be one of Obama’s strengths. I suppose that if someone is as bad on domestic policy as the president is, that relatively speaking he might well be better on foreign policy and therefore in some very lame sense it could be described as one of his strengths. But since he’s hopeless with both, I cannot see how saying he is better at one than the other is much more than a bad joke.

The intervention by the second debate moderator, Ms Candy Crowley, an American journalist and therefore an Obama supporter, over what Obama had said about the disturbance in Benghazi – did he maintain for two weeks that it was a reaction to a Youtube trailer or did he acknowledge from the start that it was an act of terrorism? – transformed what could have been the decisive moment in the election into an indeterminate outcome. Obama shamelessly lied about what he had said but in doing so clearly knew he was to be rescued by Crawley so went ahead anyway. Romney now knows the score and will no doubt be prepared but there are lots of surprises still to come. Bob Schieffer of CBS will be the moderator who will no doubt display his own agenda during the night. Since the media will not trash Obama for his untruths and misstatements while Romney must play a perfect game just to stay on the field, it will be a very challenging hour and a half. It is a debate not to be missed. The details:

Tuesday October 23: Presidential debate #3: Foreign policy

Watch the debate live on SBS ONE or streamed live on the SBS World News Australia website from 12pm ADST.