As this last one-on-one match-up is a foreign policy debate, there will no doubt be a variety of topics discussed. There will certainly be extensive talk of Libya, Israel, Iran, and the European Union. There will also no doubt be an Obama attempt to use OBL’s death to his political advantage at some point during the 90-minute session.

…and then there is CHINA…

One of the most frequent questions I receive in my classes is what China means to the future of the United States. Students are aware on a rudimentary level that we use a lot of products made in China. They are also aware to a lesser extent how China is growing as an economic power.

What they are less aware of is how China is profiting from our willingness to pile on heaps of debt.

At the moment, China holds $1.2 trillion in U.S government debt. When I notify my students of this inconvenient truth, they stare at me in amazement.

When I inform them that we are, in all reality, paying China interest to finance the accumulation of more and more debt, their eyes widen.

When I remind them that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is estimating that the national debt will, at minimum, cross the $22 trillion threshold by the end of the decade – and that China will benefit economically from this continuance – their jaws nearly hit the floor.

Frankly, I’d be shocked if any of my students votes for Barack Obama in November subsequent to being educated on the facts…and I have barely mentioned him by name in my classes.

If Mitt Romney has been looking for a way to inject the campaign’s premier issue – THE ECONOMY – into the debate tonight, he needs look no further than how China is padding its wallet by financing our skyrocketing debt. I suspect that conversation in front of a national audience may just whittle away any remaining hope Barack Obama has of being re-elected two weeks from tomorrow. It will also educate a nation of voters who are unaware of just how poorly we are conducting economic policy compared to our chief rivals in that arena.

In other words, an economy built on debt is much like household finances built on credit cards. Sooner or later, that household is destined to fail…just like the Obama economy.

(Oh, and if China isn’t enough to fill the unfulfilled moment when Romney buries Obama, let’s remind America how weak the purchasing power of our dollar is…inflation as evidenced by $4/gallon gas and milk…when our dollar is heavily weighed in value against the Euro…

THE EURO…

…the currency the EU uses…the same EU that is consistently in financial crisis because it’s members can’t get their budgets under control. It will be fun watching Obama squirm when he tries to tell the country that we’re not headed down the same path, courtesy of his economic policies.)