Team Obama: Romney ‘unsteady’ at the final presidential debate

BOCA RATON, Fla.--President Barack Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe went on the attack against surrogates for Republican challenger Mitt Romney who said the president was too aggressive during the final presidential debate Monday night.

"This is a debate about who should be our commander in chief, so if they're going to whine and talk about attacks in a debate about strength and who's commander in chief, it's a remarkable thing," an energized Plouffe told reporters here after the debate, which focused on foreign policy. "It's actually an absurd thing to do. They're saying he was petty, he attacked too much. ... If you can't sit there and take that from a political opponent, how are you going to deal with the people who want to do America harm?"

Plouffe was responding to comments relayed to him by reporters who had spoken to Romney surrogates who had suggested Obama's aggressive style at the final debate may have hurt him.

Obama's top advisers declined to say whether the debate would change the shape of the race, but they insisted that Romney appeared "unsteady" throughout Monday's contest and said Obama fulfilled his objective to appear strong and make Romney appear as though he lacked command of the issues.

"You saw a very uncertain Gov. Romney," Obama strategist David Axelrod said.

The use of the word "unsteady," of course, was carefully chosen. As Yahoo's Holly Bailey reported, Romney's goal during the debate was to appear "clear" and communicate a "steadiness" on his foreign policy ideas, which Obama's surrogates moved to knock down as soon as the debate ended.