Alec MacGillis, The New Republic
If you had somehow managed to avoid the entire presidential campaign for the past few weeks - had, say, gone to fight with the rebels in Syria - and returned to see the final presidential debate, you would probably assume that Barack Obama was cruising to reelection. You would see an incumbent president confidently and proudly holding forth about how he had managed to rebuild the country's standing in the world, gotten us out of one war and halfway out of another, and, not without some difficulties, helped usher in a new era in the Arab world. You would see a challenger pulling punches,...