Week In The News: Denver Debate, Voter ID, Syria Hits Turkey

Debate and aftermath. Turkey, Syria trade artillery fire. Benghazi won’t go away. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Last week, Mitt Romney on the ropes.  This week, Mitt Romney on the move.  At least in pundit land, after the first big presidential debate in Denver.  Romney was hot.  The president was not.

Now the Romney camp is fired up, and Obama’s saying “who was that?” moderate-sounding guy at the podium.   Etch-a-Sketch or Mitt at last?  We’ve got new unemployment numbers, and they are – blessedly – down.  7.8 percent.  Good news for the White House.  Turkey and Syria trade bombshells.  Airline seats in motion.

This hour, On Point:  our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.
-Tom Ashbrook

Bryan Monroe, editor of CNNPolitics.com.

Molly Ball, staff writer covering national politics at The Atlantic.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst.

Politico "The debate was relatively sleepy, and there were no fireworks or big “moments” to speak of, but Romney scored on points against a barely-there incumbent."

National Review "Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have both been running for president since about 2006, and have participated in a lot of debates in that time. I think this was Mitt Romney’s best debate in that entire time, and Barack Obama’s worst. Obama was the more surprising. He was weaker than usual in every way — poor on substance, poor on style, very tired; he missed opportunities and failed to defend himself. I personally think the president’s record is in most respects indefensible, but presumably Obama doesn’t agree with that. He didn’t show it tonight."

Foreign Policy "Everyone who wasn't rushing to fight on the front lines seemed to be starting a newspaper or radio station or volunteer group, eager to connect to the world from which Muammar al-Qaddafi had isolated them and grateful to the mostly Western countries that helped them in their moment of need. "