Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney may have exchanged a tactical defeat for a strategic victory in Monday’s foreign policy debate, losing on points to the president by most accounts but scoring a solid performance that left major pundits declaring he had passed “the commander in chief test” in resounding fashion.

CNN’s flash poll taken immediately after the debate had President Barack Obama winning, 48 to 40 percent. But a host of pundits declared it a strategic win for Romney, who played it conservatively as Obama aggressively attacked his positions, repeatedly insisting to Romney “that’s not true,” and “you’ve been over the map.”

The major question for Romney going into the debate: Would he establish himself as a trustworthy alternative to Obama in the commander-in-chief’s role?

“I think Mitt Romney did something very important to his campaign tonight,” former presidential adviser David Gergen told CNN. “He passed the commander-in-chief test.
Newsmax contributor, foreign-policy expert, and Pulitzer Prize winner Judith Miller concurred.

“What would have killed him was a Gaffe-gate,” she said of Romney. “One mistake, one Gerald Ford moment of Poland not being in the Warsaw Pact. And he was not about to let that happen.”

Miller was struck by the degree of consensus between the two leaders on a wide range of foreign policy issues. She said that by taking that approach, Romney “reassured people who fear a return to a more aggressive path. People are sick of war, and I think he did that. He reassured people that he is as steady in foreign policy as he did in domestic policy. I think he passed that test.”

Read more on Newsmax.com: Pundits Proclaim: Romney Passes ‘Commander-in-Chief Test’