- Banned
- #1
Political Animal - A candidate can only fake it for so long
The former Massachusetts governor effectively called for a trade war with China, which is hopelessly insane, and is based on Romneys confused understanding of whats procedurally possible at the WTO. He also called for U.S. support for the insurgents in Iran, apparently unaware of the fact that there are no such insurgents.
Romney went on to say he would never negotiate with the Taliban in Afghanistan, which is naive and at odds with the assessments of all U.S. military leaders, and added that hes both for and against withdrawal timetables.
For all the jokes about the clowns that make up this years Republican presidential field, the conventional wisdom is flawed. Romney, were told, is the serious one, in large part because he speaks in complete sentences, and isnt bad at pretending to be credible. Ultimately, though, Romneys efforts dont change the fact that hes faking it and those who understand the issues beyond a surface-level understanding surely realize the GOP frontrunner just doesnt know what hes talking about.
Worse, Romney keeps failing these tests. Remember the time Romney told ABC News he would set a deadline for bringing the troops home from Iraq but only if its a secret deadline? How about the time Romney, more than four years into the war in Iraq, said its entirely possible that Saddam Hussein hid weapons of mass destruction in Syria prior to the 2003 invasion? Or the time Romney pretended Hezbollah and Hamas and al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood were all the same thing? How about my personal favorite: the time Romney made the bizarre assertion that IAEA weapons inspectors were not allowed entry into Saddam Husseins Iraq?
More recently, Romney tried to trash the New START nuclear treaty in an op-ed, prompting Fred Kaplan to respond, In 35 years of following debates over nuclear arms control, I have never seen anything quite as shabby, misleading and lets not mince words thoroughly ignorant as Mitt Romneys attack on the New START treaty.
None of this may matter much to voters, whose attention is focused on the economy, but for voters who take foreign policy seriously, Mitt Romney is a bit of a joke.