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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDNC: What exactly is Romney's foreign policy experience?
Posted by Madeleine Perry on Monday, March 26, 2012 at 4:30 p.m. ET
Today, Mitt Romney falsely accused the President of caving to Russia on missile defense. But his comments beg the question: what exactly is Mitt Romney's foreign policy experience?
More than once, Mitt Romney has reacted to the news that the U.S. would be pulling its troops out of combat assignments in Afghanistan by mid-2013, saying that President Obama was naïve. You have to wonder at the use of the term, given Romney's flip-flop on the Obama strategy of an Afghan withdrawal at least three times: he was for it, then against it, before recommending a gradual transitionwhatever that is.
In addition to his Etch A Sketch approach to Afghanistan, Romney seems particularly unsure of what the U.S. should do in the Middle East. His foreign policy white paper fails to lay out a concrete strategy for what America should do in Iraq, speaking in broad strokes and ending with a statement that the U.S. should use "the broad array of our foreign-policy tools" to establish a lasting relationship with the Iraqi people. Thats not a strategy; its an applause line. At one point Romney even claimed that President Obama was following Bushs wisdom on Iraq, which seems, at minimum, a spectacular misuse of the term.
But maybe foreign policy just isn't that important to Romney. In 2008, while running for the GOP nomination against John McCain, Romney's canned foreign policy responses suggested he doesn't think a president needs to have any foreign policy experience at all. "If foreign policy experience were the measure for selecting a president, he said, "we'd just go to the State Department and pick up one of the thousands and thousands of people who've spent their whole life in foreign policy." Which is to say, when it comes to foreign policy, Romney would just as soon have someone else show leadership.
Ben Labolt, OFA Press Secretary, said today:
Once again Governor Romney is undermining his credibility by distorting the Presidents words. Governor Romney has been all over the map on the key foreign policy challenges facing our nation today, offering a lot of chest thumping and empty rhetoric with no concrete plans to enhance our security or strengthen our alliances ... Instead of passing the buck, it is time that Governor Romney shared his foreign policy agenda with the American people.
Romney should know: waffling on Afghanistan, engaging in sloganeering on Iraq, stating that a president doesn't need any foreign policy experience, and describing George Bush as wise does not exactly give the American electorate confidence that youre ready to be Commander in Chief.
read: http://www.democrats.org/news/blog/4301
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)while killing US jobs.
Democrats, on the other hand... ah, nevermind.
TheCowsCameHome
(40,168 posts)but he lived in Massachusetts.
bigtree
(86,005 posts). . . he's just another 'average' New Hampshire resident (when it suits him politically to count his vacation time there as residency)
Enrique
(27,461 posts)bigtree
(86,005 posts). . . his 'sighted' financial broker just happens to have stashed oodles of Romney's money there.
Icicle
(121 posts)He has no foreign policy experience, other than the previously mentioned shipping jobs overseas and making big deals with foreign big wheels in the financial markets.
I'm sure there's a shadowy figure behind him making his foreign policy, and he doesn't want to talk about it right now because it closely resembles Neocon/Bush/Cheney. If he mentions it now he will not survive the general election (even though he might pump up some Republican enthusiasm).
bigtree
(86,005 posts). . . chock-full of Bush-era hawks and hacks.
http://www.mittromney.com/blogs/mitts-view/2011/10/mitt-romney-announces-foreign-policy-and-national-security-advisory-team
Cofer Black
Christopher Burnham
Michael Chertoff
Eliot Cohen
Norm Coleman
John Danilovich
Paula J. Dobriansky
Eric Edelman
Michael Hayden
Kerry Healey
Kim Holmes
Robert Joseph
Robert Kagan
John Lehman
Andrew Natsios
Meghan OSullivan
Walid Phares
Pierre Prosper
Mitchell Reiss
Daniel Senor
Jim Talent
Vin Weber
Richard Williamson
Dov Zakheim
US special envoy to Sudan, Richard Williamson:
Romneys foreign policy guru has been intricately involved in foreign affairs at senior levels since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, who appointed him assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, a role he succeeded Alan Keyes in and immediately preceded John Bolton in.
During the presidency of George W. Bush, he was at various points ambassador to the United Nations for special political affairs, ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the presidents special envoy to Sudan.
In 2008, he worked on Arizona Sen. John McCains presidential campaign as a senior foreign policy adviser.
link: nevermind that
Icicle
(121 posts)The people who think of the Bush years as "The Good 'Ol Days" are lining up to be in position to finish what they started.
If we don't re-elect the President, the Bush years will seem like a holiday.
FSogol
(45,519 posts)3. nothing else.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Here's how it started...
Romney not worried about Santorum, labels Russia No. 1 'foe'
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/26/romney-not-worried-about-santorum-labels-russia-no-1-foe/?hpt=hp_bn5
So Medvedev suggests Romney needs to look at his watch:
"Also, (one needs to) look at his watch: we are in 2012 and not the mid-1970s."
Medvedev says Romney's anti-Russia comment smacks of Hollywood
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/27/russia-usa-medvedev-idUSL3E8ER51920120327
denverbill
(11,489 posts)mac56
(17,574 posts)malaise
(269,157 posts)and selling out firms to China
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)Atman
(31,464 posts)He had to deal with them, you know.
longship
(40,416 posts)nt needed