The Washington Post

Romney’s excellent trip

At the outset of his recent foreign trip, Mitt Romney committed a gaffe. In answer to a question about the Olympics, he expressed skepticism about London’s preparations. The response confounded and exasperated Romney supporters because it was such an unforced error. The question invited a simple paean to Olympic spirit and British grit, not the critical analysis of a former Olympic organizer.

Soon that initial stumble was transmuted into a metaphor for everything that followed. The mainstream media decided with near-unanimity that the rest of the trip amounted to a gaffe-prone disaster.

Really? The Warsaw leg was a triumph. Romney’s speech warmly embraced Poland’s post-communist experiment as a stirring example of a nation committed to limited government at home and a close alliance with America abroad, even unto such godforsaken war zones as Afghanistan and Iraq, at great cost to itself and with little thanks.

Especially little from the Obama administration, which unilaterally canceled a Bush(43)-era missile-defense agreement with Poland to appease Russia. Without any overt criticism of the current president, Romney set out a foreign policy of radically greater appreciation of and fidelity to American allies.

Yet all we hear about Warsaw is the “gaffe”: two phrases uttered by an aide, both best described as microscopically rude. At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a pack of reporters hurled questions of such journalistic sophistication as, “What about your gaffes?” To which Rick Gorka suggested that the reporters kiss his posterior, a rather charming invitation that would have made a superb photo op.

The other offense against human decency was Gorka’s correlative directive to “shove it.”

The horror! On the eve of the 2004 Democratic Convention, Teresa Heinz Kerry offered precisely that anatomically risky suggestion to an insistent Pittsburgh journalist. Not only did she later express no regret, but Hillary Clinton reacted with: “Good for you, you go girl.”

So where’s the Romney gaffe? Is what’s good for the Heinz not good for the Gorka?

And at his previous stop, Jerusalem, Romney’s speech was a masterpiece of nuance and restraint. Without directly criticizing Obama, Romney drew pointed distinctions deftly expressed in the code words and curlicued diction of Middle East diplomacy.

He declared flatly that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. The official Obama position is that Israel’s capital is to be determined in negotiations with the Palestinians. On Iran, Romney asserted that Israel has the right to defend itself. Obama says this as boilerplate. Romney made clear he means it — that if Israel has to attack, the United States won’t flash the red light before nor punish Israel afterward.

What about the alleged gaffe that dominated reporting from Israel? Romney averred that Israeli and Palestinian economic development might be related to culture. A Palestinian Authority spokesman obligingly jumped forth to accuse Romney of racism, among other thought crimes.

The American media bought it whole, despite the fact that Romney’s assertion was a direct echo of the United Nations’ Arab Human Development Report, written by Arab intellectuals and commissioned by the U.N. It unambiguously asserted that “culture and values are the soul of development.” And went on to report how existing cultural norms — “including traditional Arab culture and values” — are among the major impediments to Arab economic progress.

The report deplores the rampant corruption, repressive governance and lack of women’s (and human) rights as major contributors to backwardness in the Arab world. (In the Palestinian case, it faults Israeli “occupation,” but a U.N. document that doesn’t blame Israel for every Palestinian sorrow, if not the world’s, has yet to be written. Moreover, that excuse doesn’t work for today’s occupation-free, Palestinian-run Gaza.)

Is there any question about Romney’s assertion? PLO/P.A. corruption is legend. Palestinians are repelled by it. Why do you think, when finally given the chance, they voted against the P.A. in 2006?

Romney’s point about “culture” was to highlight the improbable emergence of Israel from resourceless semi-desert to First World “start-up nation,” a tribute to its freedom and openness, just as free-market Chile stands out from state-dominated Ecuador.

Look at how Romney was received. In Israel, its popular prime minister lavished on him a welcome so warm as to be a near-endorsement. In Poland, Romney received an actual endorsement from Lech Walesa, former dissident, former president, Cold War giant, Polish hero.

Two staunch U.S. allies salute a man they would like to see lead the free world. Yet the headlines were “shove it” and “culture.”

Scorecard? Romney’s trip was a major substantive success: one gaffe (Britain), two triumphs (Israel and Poland) and a fine demonstration of foreign-policy fluency and command — wrapped, however, in a media narrative of surpassing triviality.
Charles Krauthammer

Come on its a natural law that it takes a lot of atta boys to wipe out a couple of awshi$ts. Mitt and team fd up a pretty simple trip designed to avoid such gaffes.

what bulls***

Romney's a fool, and so is anyone who votes for him.

Fish on...

Todd

Mitt WAS a moderate.

Then the RNC took control.

Now he's a f'n donkey that does what he's told.

Just like the guy we have now.

Yeah...........vote for Mitt...............that will change things.

Or it won't.

If you say so.

"You all "know" about Obama"

You mean the black muslim socialist that wants to take away all of your guns and isn't really a US citizen?

What do you call someone that votes for Barry (again) ?

All you have to do is watch Romney...it's not the media's fault that he makes an ass of himself every time he opens his mouth, that he's woefully uninformed about anything other than being a businessman (which is why he looks like such a fool whenever he tries to talk about anything else), and that he's got the personality and wit of a dirty sock.

He's going to get murderized in the debates, and that will be it for the undecided voters...then all he'll have left are the fools.

Fish on...

Todd

Todd, are you going to answer my question?

I have to agree with AM on this one, and it's not even close.

The best about the O guy is he makes Bush look good.

Hey Todd, since when did YOU become a judge of what it takes
to be a fool? I suspect that you spend too much time in front of the
mirror.
Mitt comes off as a genius in a Todd comparison. lol

He's spent nearly 6 trillion dollars..

Hussein has never held a real job.

I believe that POTUS is a real job.

Just goes to show that "having a job" and "producing" don't necessarily go hand in hand.

A country is not a business, and a President is not a CEO.

-Osama bin Laden is dead.
-Detroit is not dead.
-AHCA has passed (and in spite of the whining, is not only what Romney already did in Mass, but is what the Republicans were pushing for all along until Obama actually did it.
-The stupid and meaningless war in Iraq is over.
-"Don't ask, Don't tell" has been repealed.
-Obama is 100% correct on every social issue, Romney professes to be 100% wrong on every social issue (but will change his mind twice on each one in the next few months)
-the stock market is at an all time high, and still going up
-in spite of all the whining, corporate profits are at an all time high, and still going up.

That's just for starters.

Fish on...

Todd

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-august-1-2012/no-country-for-bold-men?xrs=share_copy

Nobody says it better!

Also, to draw a comparison...

the stock market is at an all time high, and still going up


Closing High: 14,164.53, October 9, 2007