There were no binders full of women at the final presidential debate on Monday, but there were certainly horses and bayonets.
President Barack Obama countered Mitt Romney's comment that the U.S. "Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917" with a zinger that won the night.
"You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916," Obama told Romney. "Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed."
SCROLL DOWN FOR FULL EXCHANGE
The "horses and bayonets" comment delighted the Twittersphere: The hashtag #horsesandbayonets became the number one trend on Twitter in the U.S. and third in the world. At one point, the phrase was mentioned on Twitter nearly 60,000 times in one minute, according to data from Tospy, a social web analytics tool.
The Obama campaign capitalized on the traffic, buying the search term "Bayonets" on Twitter, HuffPost's Mat Yurow noted.
Within minutes of Obama's comment, a "Horses and Bayonets" Tumblr featuring GIFs and images went live, and a Horses and Bayonets Facebook page already has more than 3,000 likes.
You now have about a week to design your [sexy] horses and bayonets Halloween costumes.
Excerpt from debate transcript, via ABC News:
ROMNEY: Our Navy is old -- excuse me, our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We're now at under 285. We're headed down to the low-200s if we go through a sequestration. That's unacceptable to me.
I want to make sure that we have the ships that are required by our Navy. Our Air Force is older and smaller than at any time since it was founded in 1947.
...OBAMA: You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.
And so the question is not a game of Battleship, where we're counting slips. It's what are our capabilities. And so when I sit down with the secretary of the Navy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we determine how are we going to be best able to meet all of our defense needs in a way that also keeps faith with our troops, that also makes sure that our veterans have the kind of support that they need when they come home.
Click over to ABC News for the full transcript.
And, because we can, here are Romney and Obama on horseback with bayonets. The end.
(Original Romney on horse photo: Ethan Hill, Contour by Getty Images. Obama: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Associated Press. Photo illustration by HuffPost)
Before You Go
