What was with Obama's face during debate?

If you saw last night's final presidential debate or highlights of it, you probably noticed this strange look on Barack Obama's face.

WND/ Joe Kovacs

PALM BEACH, Fla. – Barack Obama is being criticized for sporting a “vicious” Obamastare during last night’s debate with Mitt Romney, making the president lose his aura of likability.

“That was a slam-dunk observation,” radio host Rush Limbaugh said this afternoon. “Just the split screen. Just Obama’s stare.”

“There was a point in this debate where Obama was staring Romney down viciously – you could see it on the split screen – and it did not distract Romney … at all. He was jumping in Obama’s chili at the time and it didn’t stop him, this attempt to intimidate. It didn’t work at all.”

U.S. historian Dr. Tim Stanley agrees about the facial expressions, writing in Britain’s Telegraph, “The president insulted, patronized and mocked his opponent rather than put across a constructive argument. His performance was rude and unpresidential. Obama seemed to have a touch of the Bidens, wriggling about in his chair, waving his hands dismissively and always – always – smirking in Romney’s direction. By contrast, Romney sucked up the abuse and retained a rigid poker face all night. He looked like a commander in chief; Obama looked like a lawyer.”

One of the most talked-about exchanges from the foreign-policy debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., was when the Republican Romney lamented the shrinking numbers of ships in the U.S. Navy.

Obama responded, “We also have fewer horses and bayonets.”

“We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them,” Obama cheekily told Romney. “We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.”

“I don’t know what you call it when you have a community organizer explaining to Mitt Romney how aircraft carriers work,” Limbaugh noted. “I guarantee you the Drive-By Media was cringing over those things.” 

Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama take part in the final presidential debate of the 2012 campaign at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.

“Remember, you have to judge Obama in context of 2008, not the first debate, not the second debate, not just this campaign,” Limbaugh explained. “You gotta go back to who he was in 2008, and he was Mr. Messiah. He was unlike anything this country had ever seen and it was all positive. He was magic. He was gonna bring everybody together. The old politics was going to be vanishing. Race relations were going to heal. Post-partisan days were ahead. The world was going to love us.

“People made of Obama whatever they wanted, and those that made positive vibes of him created this incredible creature, this caricature of Mr. Perfect. And chief among the things that he always had going for him was that he was likable. In addition to being the first black president, he was a likable first black president. He always had that to fall back on. He always had that to rely on, but last night he wasn’t likable.

“This whole debate season, Barack Obama, without aid of a teleprompter and without – other than one instance of assistance offered by Candy Crowley [in the second debate] – he was without media help. Without his usual safeguards and comfort zones, Obama eroded all of the positives that have built up about him. He did it himself. You take his prompter away, you take his supportive media away, you take a protective cocoon of supporters and strategists away from him and put him out there all on his own, and the real Obama surfaces. And that’s why the media today can’t proclaim him the winner. He wasn’t likable. They can’t sell, not with any credibility, they can’t sell the Obama they saw last night.”