BOCA RATON, Fla. -- President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney spent their final debate Monday circling the globe’s hot spots as they clashed over the merits of diplomacy and brinkmanship in Libya, Israel, Iran, the Middle East and other volatile areas.

But they also managed to get in digs at their opponents’ economic plans.

The topic of the 90-minute clash at Lynn University , their third and final debate, was billed as foreign policy, which polls show is not a major concern of most Americans as they prepare to vote Nov. 6. About one-third of the way through the debate, Obama and Romney turned the talk to the economy, the issue that is overwhelmingly most on voters’ minds.

A strong America, Romney said, must have a strong economy. “For us to be able to promote those principles of peace requires us to be strong,” he said. “And that begins with a strong economy here at home. Unfortunately, the economy is not stronger.”

Obama, too, wanted to talk about the economy and said his administration has ended the war in Iraq and put the U.S in a position to rebuild. And he charged that Romney would pursue “wrong and reckless policies.”

The president was the aggressor from the start, charging, that Romney has “praised George Bush as a good economic steward and Dick Cheney as somebody who shows great wisdom and judgment. And taking us back to those kinds of strategies that got us into this mess is not the way that we are going to maintain leadership in the 21st century.”

The debate’s main purpose was to give voters a measure of how each candidate would act as commander in chief, and both men tried to portray themselves as resolute as well as reasonable.

The two men spent much of their time in broad agreement on a host of issues, including the nation’s deep commitment to Israel, the plan to remove American military troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2014, the policy of sending drones to kill enemies abroad, and sanctions against Iran.

But there was friction. Obama charged that Romney was tied to policies of the past. “Every time you’ve offered an opinion, you’ve been wrong,” the president said.

What’s needed is “strong steady leadership,” Obama said. He offered an impassioned remembrance of how Osama bin Laden was tracked down and killed.

Referring to a girl whose father was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the president said, “When we do things like that – when we bring those who have harmed us to justice, that sends a message to the world and it tells Peyton that we did not forget her father. And I make that point because that’s the kind of clarity of leadership, and those decisions are not always popular. Those decisions generally – generally are not poll-tested. And even some in my own party, including my current vice president, had the same critique as you did.”

Romney labeled his strategy “straightforward.” The major strategy, he said, is to “make sure we go after leaders of these various anti-American groups and these jihadists.”

“But we can’t kill our way out of this mess,” he said. “We’re going to have to put in place a very comprehensive and robust strategy to help the – the world of Islam and other parts of the world, reject this radical violent extremism, which is – it’s certainly not on the run.”