Final Debate Thoughts: Horses and Bayonets

Some thoughts over at the Diplomat on the debate, and on what a Romney administration Navy might look like:

However, the Romney campaign has given little indication as to how it will pay for these increases.  Unless it can reallocate funding from the other services, an increase in the size of the Navy will require a larger defense budget.  The Romney campaign has committed to this, but increasing the budget puts Romney’s other fiscal goals in jeopardy.  Indeed, Lehman’s account of Romney naval policy is notable for its failure to make any choices; new frigate, more submarines, more carrier air groups, LCS, and so forth.  Responding to Cavas’ “Is there any program right now that you would cut?,” Lehman said “I wouldn’t single out any program at this time. I think there’ll be a hard look at all the programs. But that’s not something the campaign is undertaking at this point, and won’t until after the election.”

One more point; Romney walked into the “horses and bayonets” point as if he and his campaign hadn’t been telegraphing the punch for several months. It’s hard to understand how he and his campaign didn’t appreciate that Obama would be able to come up with some kind of response; I suspect that they’re still living in a universe where any suggestion of defense cuts is essentially political poison. There’s no reason whatsoever to think that’s the case right now.