Mitt Romney Wades Into Foreign Policy… And Drowns

Filed in National by on September 12, 2012

Steve Kornacki at Salon says it perfectly:

The foolishness of Romney’s reaction is glaring. Pretending that the statement from the U.S. embassy in Cairo was anything other than a completely understandable and reasonable attempt by its occupants to save their own lives borders on disgraceful. Romney’s implication that the statement was issued at the height of the attacks is also false; it was actually released earlier in the day, a preventive measure aimed at keeping the protests from turning violent.

But this hasn’t stopped other Republicans – including RNC chairman Reince Priebus and Sarah Palin – from echoing the Romney line. Again, it probably shouldn’t be surprising. This is the kind of nonsense you’ll get when one party spends four years convincing itself that a president is something he isn’t.

What sort of person would use this tragedy to score political points?  The fact that Mitt Romney was wrong on the facts is simply par for the course.  And this is the guy Republicans want in office – A guy who would probably jump the gun and bomb the wrong country.

My prediction: Politically this will be a disaster for Romney.

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Comments (16)

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  1. pandora says:

    Josh Marshall weighs in:

    Bear in mind, this was all happening while attacks on US personnel abroad were ongoing. According to a statement released this morning by the White House, the President was told last night that Ambassador Chris Steven was unaccounted for last night. Only this morning did he learn that Stevens had died in the attacks that were on-going last night.

    The campaign also authorized Romney’s top foreign policy advisor to give a blistering interview attacking the president while the attacks were continuing.

    Politics is hardball. Everything is, in some sense, fair. But campaigns are also a prism into the judgment and steadiness under pressure of a person who would be president. This was amateur hour for the opposition campaign last night, reminiscent of John McCain’s rash call four years ago to cancel the presidential debates and the campaign itself to deal with the unfolding economic crisis. There was nothing ignoble or dishonorable about McCain’s suggestion. It just showed a certain rashness that was widely viewed as unpresidential.

    Romney’s moment was quite different — rash and shameful. Not worthy of a president. Crass, undignified and troubling on many levels.

    It is troubling. People were dying.

  2. skippertee says:

    It’s just Robme shoring up his support from the neo/cons.

  3. nemski says:

    Romney and his people are looking more unfit for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that George W Bush and his oil buddies.

  4. jason330 says:

    I’d like to comment on the politics of this, but I can’t because I just can’t get over how shameful this is on a human level.

  5. Dave says:

    One of the chief responsibilities of the President is foreign policy and national security. I did not vote for Obama for that reason. I want and need someone who has the chops for those functions. In my opinion Obama proved he was capable to execute both those functions. He did not have the experience when he ran in 08, but he certainly does now.

    The same could be said and proved by Romney, but we live in a volatile world and I am not willing to take a chance on someone who believes that Russia is our greatest geo-political threat and issues statements on the Libyan situation such as he did. There are too many lives at stake.

    Romney also does not have the luxury of a VP who has any more experience/qualifications than he does. Had Romney selected a VP, like perhaps Jon Huntsman, my view might have been different.

  6. Joe Cass says:

    Romney’s campaign is so dead that he’s about to baptize it.

  7. nemski says:

    Romney is trying to dispel his lack of foreign policy experience by displaying his lack of foreign policy experience.

  8. jason330 says:

    He is trying to prove that he is as impulsive and lacking in common sense as the average conservative Republican.

  9. puck says:

    Who does Romney think he is playing to with this BS anyway? Romney keeps forgetting to shake the foreign policy Etch-A-Sketch.

    I guess underlying all of this is Republicans’ unquenchable need to constantly point out Obama is black. Not like “us.” And a Muslim terrorist.

  10. Geezer says:

    Joe Cass for the win.

  11. anonymous says:

    Rmoney dives in and once again proves,

    Mitt Ain’t Fit – to be President.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F9FbdqGRsg&feature=related

  12. puck says:

    The dreaded U word is sticking to Mitt: Unpresidential.

  13. jason330 says:

    This episode really reveals the nature of modern Republicanism. They believe that everything is politics. Karl Rove merged the White House offices that handled “politics” with the one that handled “policies” and the GOP has never been the same.

    The fact is everything isn’t politics. In a democracy it isn’t about always trying to score points off your opponents.

  14. skippertee says:

    This was Mitt’s “brainwashed” moment like his old man’s re:Vietnam.
    He’ll never live this down.

  15. Liberal Elite says:

    It’s really hard to believe that Romney would blow his remaining election chances trying to score cheap right wing hit political points… on 9/11 no less.

  16. puck says:

    Mystery solved:

    Who’s Advising Mitt Romney on Foreign Policy?

    Romney keeps a large group of foreign-policy advisers, eight of whom participated in the early neoconservative group Project for a New American Century think tank, founded in 1997 and headed by William Kristol, the Nation’s Ari Berman reported in May. In the same month, The New York Times’ Magazine’s David Sanger reported on discontent within that big team, with some complaining that Romney only listens to Bolton.

    Romney has long sought to distinguish himself from the president by drawing a contrast between weakness and strength, and his posture is reflected in the team he’s chosen, peppered with luminaries from the Bush administration. The “special advisers”-who do not comprise the entire foreign policy team-are listed on Romney’s campaign website:

    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 O’Sullivan Walid Phares Pierre Prosper Mitchell Reiss Daniel Senor Jim Talent Vin Weber Richard Williamson Dov Zakheim