Analyzing the final presidential debate

While the economy has been the main focus of the presidential race, foreign policy took center stage in the third and final debate between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney. We get analysis on the debate as a whole and also look at the discussion about China and the Middle East.

Roger Cohen, columnist for The New York Times and International Herald Tribune, will join The Daily Circuit Tuesday. Anthony Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Boston College political science professor Robert Ross will also join the discussion.

More from the Associated Press:

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) -- President Barack Obama sharply challenged Mitt Romney on foreign policy in their final campaign debate Monday night, saying, "Every time you've offered an opinion you've been wrong." The Republican coolly responded, "Attacking me is not an agenda" for dealing with a dangerous world.

Romney took the offensive, too. When Obama said the U.S. and its allies have imposed crippling sanctions on Iran to halt nuclear weapons development, the Republican challenger responded that the U.S. should have done more. He declared repeatedly, "We're four years closer to a nuclear Iran."

Despite the debate's stated focus on foreign affairs, time after time the rivals turned the discussion back to the slowly recovering U.S. economy, which polls show is the No. 1 issue for most voters.

They found little agreement on that, but the president and his rival found accord on at least one international topic with domestic political overtones -- Israel's security -- as they sat at close quarters 15 days before the end of an impossibly close election campaign. Each stressed unequivocal support for Israel when asked how he would respond if the Jewish state were attacked by Iran.

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