I missed it too

Nobody mentioned it last night:  not during the debate, not in the commentary after, not in the critiques I saw this morning.   Some even said that "no Gerald Ford" moment, referring to the 1976 debate in which Ford claimed that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.

But I missed it too.    Romney said:

"Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world.  It's their route to the sea.  It's the route for them to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon, which threatens, of course, our ally Israel."

The trouble is that Syria and Iran do not share a border.  Iraq lies squarely between them.  And Iran does have access to the sea, both to the south and to the north.   It appears to have a coastline about 15 or 20 times as long as the tiny coast line in Syria.

No, it's not quite as big a blunder as Gerald Ford's.   But it is significant, when Romney is making such a big issue out of our protective alliance with Israel.

Why were the professionals asleep at the wheel?   My excuse is that I simply don't know the geography of the region that well.   But I don't claim to be an expert.  What about the news analysts, the Obama campaign?

Ralph