[By Larry Goldfarb]

So there they were, Obama and Romney, going to toe to toe on a basketball court in beautiful Hempstead, NY.  The question concerned what the President knew about the character of the attack in Benghazi and what he told the public.  Romney asserted that the President did not signal the act to be terrorism until 14 days after the incident.  Obama noted that he identified the terrorist act on day 2 during a speech in the Rose Garden.

Romney, when he got back to the podium followed up by repeating Obama’s assertion and calling him a liar.  The moderator from CNN, Candy Crowley, confirmed Obama’s account.  A shaken Romney, when his time was up, moved off the stage and seemed to be stammering more than usual for the last 15 minutes of the debate.

Wow, could you imagine an exchange like that in most of the countries in the world. Yes, in the UK, it is routinely done and the prime minister is lambasted every Tuesday morning.  But I still found the whole experience to be impressive.  And it brings us back to era when people actually told us what they meant.  Today, people beat around the bush, back stab, complain through surrogates, send angry emails but few of us actually tell people what they think.  Recently I heard about a guy who was dating a number of people following the breakup of his marriage.  When he decided a girl he was dating was not right for him, he actually called her and explained that he was going to date someone else.  Can you believe this guy?