The Guardian: "Mitt Romney's Bad Trip" - "Such a slippery character"

Romney is such a slippery character that it is hard to know which of his announced foreign policies, if any, would actually be put into practice were he to become president.

Would he deliberately provoke Vladimir Putin, a leader who, apart from being naturally bellicose, thinks that standing up to the United States helps maintain his popularity at home? And would he carry out his threat to "review" the strategic arms limitation treaty? That would be a deeply counter-productive course, but it is the one that Romney has said he would follow.

Would he impose additional sanctions on Iran and take his tough line on Tehran to the point of war, as John Bolton, one of his foreign policy advisers, has come close to saying might be necessary? An attack on Iran would have incalculable consequences, but one thing would be certain: most of them would be bad, or worse than bad.

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Romney's decision to take his campaign abroad represents a reluctant tribute to Obama, whose tour of foreign capitals in July, 2008, showed Americans that he was a man who could reverse the decline in American prestige and influence under George Bush. After it, Americans could be in no doubt which candidate for their highest office the world overwhelmingly wanted. Romney can hardly expect a similar result. Obama has disappointed his global constituency, but there is a difference between a disappointment and the disaster toward which Romney's rhetoric points.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/29/mitt-romney-bad-trip-editorial