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In the new Washington Post/ABC News poll, likely voters prefer President Obama over Mitt Romney on counter-terrorism by double digits, 51% to 40%. The same poll asked about international affairs in general, and the president's lead was even larger, 51% to 38%. The new CNN poll also showed a 12-point lead for Obama on foreign policy.
With this mind, BuzzFeed reports that the president and his re-election team are confident they have "a clear advantage" on these issues, which they intend to emphasize in the race's final two months.
The Romney campaign says it's unconcerned.
"It doesn't surprise me that they're raising foreign policy because it's another distraction from the Administration's terrible economic record," [Romney foreign policy advisor Robert O'Brien] told BuzzFeed. "They're going from one shiny object to the next." [...]
O'Brien conceded that the Bin Laden killing was great -- "yes he gave the order and the Navy SEALs carried it out" -- but said there was "not really another success story to point to." And, he cautioned not to underestimate Romney's foreign policy credentials.
"The Governor is an extraordinarily well-traveled businessman, he lived overseas as a young man, he speaks French, he understands the world and he's written extensively about foreign policy and national security," he continued. "The idea that he's this naive guy at 65 years old, given his experience heading the Olympic Winter Games and everything else, I just don't think that's going to play."
Let's flesh this out a bit, because it's a rather startling perspective. Indeed, each of these comments is worse than the last.
First, Romney occasionally forgets the nation is at war. For his foreign policy advisor, on 9/11, to call foreign policy a "distraction" is an unusually bad idea.
Second, for Team Romney to accuse others of "going from one shiny object to the next" is hilarious.
Third, it's true that Obama doesn't have other foreign policy successes outside the bin Laden mission, just so long as you overlook ending the war in Iraq, the ratification of the New START treaty, assembling an international coalition to bring down the Gadhafi regime in Libya, decimating al Qaeda's network and senior leadership, and imposing a very aggressive new embargo on Iran.
And finally, there's the Romney's campaign pitch: the Republican candidate has credibility on foreign affairs because he speaks French; spent time as a missionary; he's well-traveled; he's 65; and he helped oversee an athletic competition.
Oh my.
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Well, 15% of Republicans think that Romney was responsible for Bin Laden's Death:
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_OH_9912.pdf
To be fair to the rest of America, it's 15% of Ohio Republicans.
Though if national polling offered the same results, I wouldn't be surprised for a nanosecond.
And I feel certain that 14.99% of those Ohio Republicans are dear-in-the-headlights viewers of Fox "News".
it's actually 6%...but still.... 39% either answered rmoney or"not sure"
we're screwed
------------
Q15 Who do you think deserves more credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden: Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?
Barack Obama 63%
Mitt Romney 6%
Not sure 31%
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_OH_9912.pdf
Russell- that 6% is a total of all Ohioans. 15% of Very Conservative respondents said Romney deserved more credit.
thanks for the correction..plus i now see 51% of "very conservative" answered "not sure"
we're still screwed
I'm still hoping those 15% are just bored people trolling the Hell out of the pollsters. I know I regularly bash Republicans for being a bit allergic to facts, but if 15% of them, even if it is just the one State, genuinely think Romney deserves credit for the Bin Laden I might just have to drink until my liver forcibly punches it's way out of my body to escape.
The numbers are similar in North Carolina, I'm sorry to say. (I live there.) I'm less horrified by the 15% fringe than I am by the fact that over half, in both states, don't know that it was Obama. Sigh!
Well gee, with those qualifications I absolutely have to change my vote now! He will make foreign leaders quake in their shoes!
I feel much better too that he will finally deal with those commie bastard Russians.
What M.A.N.
And of course then Junior Senator Obama had so much foreign policy experience when he ran in 2008. I do remember the "3 in the morning phone call" commercials during the primaries from Hillary Clinton's campaign highlighting candidate Obama's lack of experience.
Most Preisdents have been governors - like Romney, Clinton, Reagan, Carter, etc - and none of them really had much international political experience before they were elected, including our current POTUS.
Um, news flash there skippy, Obama has been in office and getting foreign policy experience for almost 4 years now. R-Money? Yet another right wing draft dodging silver-spoon coward, like the rest of the Republican Mayberry Machiavellis.
Citizen,
I understand that Obama has gotten on-the-job training in foreign policy while President. My point was that most candidates running for the first time - including Obama - did not have any real experience. I wonder if Steve or others on this post expressed the same concern 4 years ago when Obama was running on about 2 years experience in the US Senate with no real international political exposure. Like I said most Presidents were Governors of states and had very little international experience - both Republican and Democrat. That is the point I was making. Personally I do not like the idea of getting your "experience" after you are elected to this very important position.
And also remember neither Obama or Biden served in the military.
Hey skippy, here's a news flash - when the VietNam war was happening President Obama was still in short pants. And while Biden may have NO military service - they both support the troops. Unlike Robme another draft dodger that did "Missionary" work when VietNam was happening or like Dubya, Chaney, et.al. that "had other things to do" while their peers were serving in Nam.
And while you "...do not like the idea of getting your "experience" after you are elected to this very important position." The fact is this President unlike his predecessor or his opponent takes the time to T-H-I-N-K things thru before he makes a decision. Robme just went to "meet & greet" our friends and allies and offended them everywhere he went! And Shrub, he was just a total embarrassment that should never have been put into office!
Hello Citizen,
I was very worried about Obama's lack of foreign policy experience during the primary season, but felt reassured when he chose the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as his running mate. I felt like he was at least trying to correct a definite deficit within his personal experiences so that the country would be well-served if he won. Romney, on the other hand, chose someone with even less foreign experience than he and is insisting that it doesn't matter. That level of arrogance makes me very nervous, but your mileage may vary.
Zora,
I did NOT say Obama dodged the Vietnam war...nothing close to that. I was responding to citizens comment on Romney's "draft dodging" and lack of military service - and my response was to that comment - that Obama and Biden (and Ryan) did not serve in the military either. BTW, VP Biden also had deferrments from the Vietnam war - not missionary deferrment, but school. Just a "news flash" for you. :)
Skip - A news flash for you as well. Romney not only supported the Vietnam War but actually participated in protests in favor of the draft. To advocate for the war and draft while you simultaneously seek and get multiple deferrments takes some chutzpah. In addition, his five sons were in their 20's and early 30's when the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars began and none of them signed up, even though their dad not only supported the wars, but supported the Iraqi surge and said in 2008 we should even send more troops to Iraq to help keep the peace.
Sounds a little like "I boldly support sacrificing your life for your country...just not as it applies to me or my children."
that last sentence is hilarious
The Rape-Public-CON candidate
1) Speaks French? As I recall, doesn't that make him a "surrender-monkey"?
2) Spent time as a Mormon missionary - trying to convince the fine citizens of the Bordeaux region of France to... give up alcohol? Can anyone remind me how that worked out?
3) He's well-traveled? Sure, just ask our closest ally, England - they're on a first-name (well, middle-name) basis with "Mitt-the-Twit"!
4) He's 65? Maybe he should consider retirement...
5) He oversaw a "sporting event"? See bushjc's comment on that... :D
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
I remember the major hissy-fit that Bush & his acolytes showed towards France when France dared to question the advisability of going to war with Iraq; the hysterical days of freedom fries & pouring French wine down the gutters. I remember that old buffer Rumsfeld inveigling against 'Old Europe'. And I'm not even French. Mitt has an atrocious French accent, by the way.
Not sure of the status of Mormon Missionaries in the US, but here in Old Europe they're about as welcome as rats in a country club dining room.
His mini-trip to London showed him to be the worst sort of American abroad. He's managed to unite the government and the people in their views of crass yanks; at least it took Bush many months to be disliked.
Especially in reference to the NYT article this morning, it is this sort of laser focus on foreign policy by the Republicans that brought us 9/11 to begin with.
I'm sure Putin is oh so worried about Willard
Vlad the Poisoner probably does a happy dance whenever he thinks about the possibility of a Romney presidency.
Romney will be about as intimidating to other world leaders as Elmer Fudd is to Bugs Bunny. >__>
he speaks French
Isn't that automatic disqualifcation for anything in WackoWorld?
It's okay, TC. His horse competed in the London Olympics and picked up a British accent while there...
Whether the horse survived being strapped to the top of the jet coming home, I'm not sure.
This man called Mitt is a for real Candidate and he has supporters ! Be afraid,be very afraid for we are lost in some "Twilight Zone" that has no "Outer Limits" --do you want them to control the vertical and horizontal?
"The idea that he's this naive guy at 65 years old, given his experience heading the Olympic Winter Games and everything else, I just don't think that's going to play."
Because nothing says we should be confident in Romney like his having been dubbed by our allies as "Mitt the Twit," a "Romneyshambles," and "the American Borat." Or, watching the Australian foreign minister call him out for playing "you-didn't-build-that"-type games with the minister's comments, or watching Romney leave Israel having poured lighter fluid on the long-standing tensions in the area.
"Naive" doesn't begin to cover it - how about "clueless."
Yes, great foreign experience. And such sacrifice, giving up on his desire to go to Vietnam in order to spend three years in the missionary position in France.
if i were willard, i wouldn't be drawing attention to the three years i spent in france, wasting his time and generally irritating a lot of frenchmen. while he was bicyling around france, i was spending my twenty third year in another foreign country--the tour willard was trying to avoid.
Foreign experience: driving to Canada w/ Seamus strapped to the roof of his car.
Steve - just gotta say: great job of nailing Team Romney's sorry asses to the wall on this one.
I think this is of a piece with Romney's attempts to excuse ignoring Afghanistan and the troops in his acceptance speech, saying that he covered the "important" things. He and his campaign view his "job" as getting elected. It's true that foreign policy doesn't usually have a big effect on voters.
What's mind-boggling is that they say these things out loud, and seem to think that if voters aren't swayed by foreign policy, they'll be fine with a candidate who openly says he's only interested in the things that will get him elected, not in the things he'll have to do after he's elected.
I'm kinda suprised that Romney would brag about knowing French. From the actions of his fellow GOP and their "freedom fries", isn't that just about treasonous?
and Mittens has "written extensively about foreign policy and national security"? Where? Me thinks I see another lie. And poor O'Brien, having to admit that killing Bin Laden was a good thing, when his boss said he'd never have done the same. Since President Obama "only" gave the order, I guess any successes in Afghanistan or Iraq under Bush are to be considered only the actoins of the soldiers, not the administration. No wonder Mitt "forgot" to mention the men and women who serve in his speech.
writing extensively about foreign policy and national security, and knowing what the hell you're talking about are two entirely different thing.
i'd say his writings belong in the fiction section of the bookstore.
Being associated with France is only bad when a Democrat does it. Most of movement conservatism these days consists of hating anyone who thinks at all differently, and doing whatever will piss off liberals. Since France dared to speak out against the Iraq War, France was The Enemy. Now that Romney speaks French, there's nothing wrong with it.
And while he hasn't exactly written "extensively" about foreign policy, it's not exactly a lie. He did publish a series of op-eds this spring, all of which contained laughably obvious errors and ludicrous assertions, and were much mocked by people who actually knew what the hell they were talking about. If I were in his campaign, I wouldn't be drawing attention to them, but I guess they don't have much to work with.
a handful of op-eds, most not about foreign policy, does not make "extensive" writing about such a topic.
Yep he has extensively written about foreign policy and defense, just like he gave a speech about his policy on the war in Afghanistan to the American Legion in Tampa. To quote Tallulah Bankhead: "There is less here than meets the eye."
WOW. He speaks French!
And THE only reason that he spent two years in France was so he could avoid the draft and stay out of Vietnam.
What an accomplishment!
Don't let the neocons who told Bush to ignore the CIA's repeated alarms over bin Laden's determination to strike inside the US get their mitts on power again. Pun intended.
He's written extensively about foreign policy? Are we talking about deposit slips in the Caribbean?
I was thinking more along the lines of steamy 'romance' novels set in exotic tropical climes where men seldom wear shirts.
It seems pretty obvious that only issues that Romney feels are important are the issues in which he thinks he has an electoral advantage.
He is not fit to be the President. Character counts.
Mitt Romney and the other raging neo-con hawks have miscalculated. Their aggressive rhetoric on foreign policy and relentless bashing of the president's record underestimates the support Obama has on foreign policy and the complete disgust among the public with any talk of more neo-con military adventures that will hit America hard in the pocketbook and with the lives of our soldiers. We do not need war with Iran. This agenda is out of touch with both reality and the sentiment of most voters. - principled progressive
How Mitt dodged the draft:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/09/07/how-mitt-dodged-the-draft/
The Obama administration has also taken an effective stance against China's rising power in South Asia by establishing a more assertive military presence in Australia. The Treasury has also been able to pressure the country into steadily devaluing its yuan, which has been a boon to U.S. exports.
Can we all pause for a minute and imagine all-thumbs Romney trying to wrangle with China on trade policy?
one more time, rmoney save the olympics with a lot of taxpayer dough and a $20 million sponsorship deal with a nutritional supplement company based in utah...[something the IOC wasn't to crazy about]
the company returned the favor with serious campaign contributions ever since
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-romney-olympics-20120825,0,7940343,full.story
"and he helped oversee an athletic competition"
Romney is an ATHLETIC SUPPORT!!
I want the bumper sticker,,, and the t-shirt...
I've been watching this guy since 2007, and the more he talks, the more obvious it is that he is the worst kind of foreign policy ignoramus--uninformed, uncurious about what he might not know, and unconcerned because anything not of interest to his mighty CEO brain can't be important.
From the moment he published that WaPo editorial about New START in 2009, I've know this guy would be a worse foreign policy disaster than George W. Bush.
hmmm, just like George W. Bush in his uninformed, uncurious attitude. NO wonder he's trying to hire all of Duhbya's people
It's hard for me to say whose abyssal ignorance about foreign policy was more inexcusable. On one hand, Romney is clearly much smarter than Bush--though that's a pretty low bar to jump and I have yet to see any evidence that he's anywhere near as smart as people keep insisting he is. And he's basically been running for president full time since 2006. And yet, if Mitt's ever so much as cracked open an issue of Foreign Policy, I'll eat my hat.
On the other, however, George W. Bush grew up in the household of George H.W. Bush--scion of one of the most important American political dynasties, war hero, congressman, former envoy to China, former director of the CIA, a guy who built a network of foreign contacts attending funerals as VP that he used to great effect in putting together the Gulf War coalition. W grew up in that household and yet, somehow, came out of it more ignorant of foreign affairs than a sack of petrified potatoes.
Either way, Romney's deer-in-the headlights My Pet Goat look when all that stuff he didn't care about got a bunch of Americans killed would be the same as Bush's.