Washington Extra – The Romney Doctrine?
When it comes to U.S. presidents and foreign policy, it’s always been a matter of what they do during crises, rather than what they say on the campaign trail.
Running for president in 2000, George W. Bush campaigned against “nation building.” But the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, changed everything, and Bush wound up launching an invasion of Iraq that led to a decade-long war and redefined U.S. foreign policy.
Now, likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is talking tough on foreign policy – and seeking to cast Democratic President Barack Obama as naïve and soft. Romney is promising a “more aggressive” approach toward China, Russia and the Middle East. He says he would swiftly brand Beijing a currency manipulator, refuse to concede to Moscow on nuclear issues and put more emphasis on defending Israel from a potential attack by Iran.
Romney says he would ratchet up the financial pressure on Iran through sanctions, while leaving the option of military action on the table. His campaign clearly wants to give the impression that he might prove more willing than Obama to take military action against Iran’s nuclear program.
So would an attack on Iran really be more likely under a Romney administration? That’s unclear.
What is clear is that this is the campaign season, and that Romney’s rhetoric is an effort to diminish Obama’s foreign policy accomplishments, which – as Democrats will remind you – include killing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. And while Romney is defining a decidedly hawkish foreign policy, it remains uncertain how he would tackle what his own website calls a “bewildering array of threats and opportunities.”
Best of the debate: Ron Paul v. Michele Bachmann
Presidential debates allow voters to hear how candidates differ, and there are few policy differences as great as that between Rep. Ron Paul and Rep. Michele Bachmann on Iran. Take this exchange from last night:
Bachmann:
“Without a shadow of a doubt, Iran will take a nuclear weapon, they will use it to wipe our ally Israel off the face of the map and they’ve stated they will use it against the United States of America.”
For what it’s worth, Politifact has looked into Bachmann’s claim and rated it “false.”
Paul responded:
“I think this wild goal to have another war in the name of defense is the dangerous thing, the danger is really us overreacting.”
I don`t think that we should have a war with iran because the U.S. does not have that kind of money just to spend on having a war with iran. What we need to do is that, we need to allow Israel to handle it for them selves more than we should help them. We need jobs and protect kids from going into bad schools where there`s drug smugglin into class. And america needs to shut off all the beer factorys and stop selling beer in stores too as well. And america needs to stop going against Same-sex marriage too as well. And america needs to aband straight marriage and only allow same-sex marriage. Nobody is really following the Bible anymore, so please keep on allowing gay marriage more please
New Romney ad counters ‘flip-flopper’ label
In case you missed it, Mitt Romney grew a bit testy when Fox News’ Bret Baier pressed him with questions about his about-faces on issues like abortion, climate change and immigration in an interview last week.
Now a new ad out from his campaign looks to counter the ‘flip-flopper’ label Romney has grown so tired of talking about. The ad, released online today and due to air in Iowa and New Hampshire this week, features images of Romney as a young man with his family while Romney gives a voice-over:
I think people understand that I’m a man of steadiness and constancy. I don’t think you’re going to find somebody who has more of those attributes than I do.
I’ve been married to the same woman for 25 – excuse me, I’ll get in trouble – for 42 years. I’ve been in the same church my entire life. I worked at one company, Bain, for 25 years. And I left that to go off and help save the Olympic Games
The use of old family photos of Romney and his brood is a useful counter to YouTube clips of a younger Romney firmly espousing positions he’s since renounced. And the reference to his marriage is of course a veiled dig at the twice-divorced Newt Gingrich.
Romney’s inconstancy continues to be his biggest liability, with nearly half of likely Republican caucus and primary voters in Iowa and New Hampshire agreeing that Romney is “a flip-flopper” or “will do or say anything to win,” according to a Bloomberg poll taken last month.
What WAS the message in Romeny’s ad? What is it with all these ads, Gingrich, Perry, all of them saying the same crap about “I believe in America and I won’t apologize for America and join me in creating a new America and like you I bless America and vote for me so we can continue to work at making America strong.”
What the HELL are you gonna DO exactly? “Oh, uh, that, I don’t know.”
In Ron Paul’s ad, he says “Bring the troops home, secure our borders, cut 1 trillion in spending in the first year and shut down 5 depts.”
THAT’S a message. Agree or disagree but THAT’S a message.
The Romney ad is just inconsequential doubletalk with some nice flowery music playing the background.
Just what is a “Lincoln-Douglas” debate?
Republican frontrunner Newt Gingrich and long-shot Jon Huntsman say they’ll hold a “Lincoln-Douglas” debate in New Hampshire on Monday. So how will it be different from the usual debates?
During the 1858 race for U.S. Senate in Illinois, incumbent Democrat Stephen Douglas and upstart Republican lawyer Abraham Lincoln held a series of seven three-hour debates in towns throughout the state on the day’s hottest topic: slavery.
The debates had no moderator, and the candidates spoke in paragraphs rather than today’s rehearsed 45-second sound bites. In each of the debates, the first candidate was given 60 minutes to make opening remarks. His opponent was given 90 minutes to respond, and the first candidate was allowed a final 30-minute rebuttal.
Today’s Republican voters will be spared a bladder-busting three-hour talkfest. Tim Miller, a spokesman for the Huntsman campaign, says Monday’s debate is likely to last just an hour and will focus on national security and foreign policy. The question of whether to have a moderator, and whom it might be, has yet to be decided, he said.
Both candidates have expressed annoyance with how the Republican debates have been moderated thus far. Until recently Gingrich’s debate performances had been most noteworthy for his attacks on the media. In a September debate in California, for instance, he told moderator John Harris of Politico: “I’m frankly not interested in your effort to get Republicans fighting each other.”
Huntsman, a former U.S. ambassador to China and Singapore who has the most foreign policy experience of any Republican candidate, had to wait 40 minutes to get asked his second question during the foreign policy debate last month and spoke for just over 6 minutes in the entire 90 minute debate, according to Politico.
In fairness to the moderators, debates exist to highlight policy differences between the candidates, and it could be argued that Huntsman, who has hardly registered in some national polls, has been given more media attention than his position in the race merits.
Newt, schmoot – Democrats keep sights firmly on Romney
Newt Gingrich may have jumped into the lead among Republican presidential hopefuls in some national polls, but the Democrats — at least – seem convinced that Mitt Romney will be President Barack Obama’s opponent in November 2012, at least if you look at how they are spending their advertising dollars.
The latest barrage, an early salvo in what is expected to be a particularly nasty presidential campaign, is a four-minute-long attack titled “Mitt v. Mitt: The Story of Two Men Trapped in One Body.” Slamming the former Massachusetts governor as having changed his position on a wide range of issues, the ad uses clips showing Romney speaking at varying points in his career and expressing different viewpoints on issues such as healthcare, immigration, climate change and even Ronald Reagan.
Speaking of Reagan, the video shows the former president saying, “There you go again,” a particularly devastating line the Republican icon used in a debate with Democratic President Jimmy Carter, whom Reagan defeated in the 1980 election. It also uses clips from late-night television hosts depicting Romney as a candidate who “flip-flops” by changing his position, echoing Democratic attacks on Romney.
In one, comedian Conan O’Brien is shown saying, “Experts are predicting kind of a tough fight between Romney and his biggest ideological opponent, Mitt Romney from four years ago. Those guys don’t agree on anything.”
A shorter preview of the four-minute video posted on the Internet will appear as a television ad in several states expected to be closely contested in the 2012 presidential election, including New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Romney’s campaign lashed back that Obama and the Democrats were attacking Romney because they do not want to talk about the sputtering U.S. economy and high unemployment rates. “The last thing the White House wants is to have to run against Mitt Romney and be held accountable for the many failures of this Administration,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement.
As I look at the sorry sorry set of Republican “rivals” on the other side, it makes me more thankful than ever…. to have Barack Obama as President of the United States, and as a viable candidate for re-election. Mr. Obama: your heart, your values, and your basic decency are all in the right place. But… your hands are tied. Unfortunately they were tied by us, the electorate…..when we failed to provide you with a Congress that you can work with. Instead, you are saddled with a don’t-tax-the-1%-do-nothing Congress that battles you at every turn, while the people suffer. God, they don’t EVEN let you pass your own appointments. It’s not Tea-publican gridlock – it’s Tea-publican sabotage. Heck, it’s Tea-publican treason. And then they try to pin the blame on Mr. Obama. These people have no shame…or else its been purchased by those who can afford to do so. Thankfully, with Occupy Wall Street America has found its voice : a voice that reminds us that people -ordinary working people- really DO matter. Instead of talking about less government , and more painful cuts, its a voice that demands a government that WORKS, a government that works FOR ALL OF US, not just for a favored few, not just for the rich. Its a voice that comes up from the grassroots, and lifts us up: because it says that this land IS our land…and we WANT IT BACK! And most importantly, it’s a voice that will help us to re-elect the President AND give him a more progressive Congress to work with. Mr. Obama: I wish you well. You STILL give me hope.
Obama focus on policy, not polls – White House
The White House is downplaying several new polls showing President Obama’s job approval ratings plunging to new lows along with rising public concern over high unemployment and the sluggish economy.
“The president is focused on the measures he can take… to address the urgent need to grow our economy and create jobs; to deal with the fact that economic growth is not fast enough and that job creation is not substantial enough,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said at Tuesday’s press briefing when asked how concerned Obama is about the poll numbers.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows Obama’s overall job approval rating at a low of 44 percent, down 3 percentage points since July. More than half of Americans now disapprove of Obama’s job performance and one in three say they’re worse off financially since he’s been in the White House, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll. And a poll by Politico and George Washington University shows 72 percent of voters believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.
Asked what Obama would say to people who feel worse off now than before he took office, Carney said the president would tell them: “He fully understands the anxiety that is out there among the American people about the economy, the frustration at the pace of growth, the frustration at the pace of job creation. And that’s why he feels it is so urgent to take action now and not to simply say, oh, well, we shouldn’t do anything and then let it all be decided next year after an election.
Obama will deliver proposals for putting people back to work in a speech to Congress Thursday night.
In advance of the speech, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell signaled Obama’s ideas could get a cool reception from congressional Republicans. McConnell said he expects Obama will offer “more of the same failed approach that’s only made things worse over the past few years.”
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney unveiled his economic plan on Tuesday. Click here to read about it .
Washington Extra – Tweet tweet
President Barack Obama’s Twitter Townhall would have been more interesting if he had answered tweet for tweet.
Instead it looked a lot like an old-fashioned interview except the questions came over the transom on Twitter.
Of the tens of thousands of questions posed at #AskObama the ones chosen allowed the president to chew over long-standing talking points but offered little new insight. It might have been worth asking at least one fun question off the well-trodden policy path.
The White House did get into the novelty of it, inviting 140 guests to match the 140 characters allowed in a tweet. And Obama started off the event by tweeting from a laptop with a presidential logo set up on a stand.
But that was the last time during the event that he issued anything so brief. If his spoken answers had been tweeted in full they would have gone way past the red zone that signals over the limit on Twitter.
Here are our top stories from Washington…
Washington Extra – Comfort zones
Senators are talking. The president is talking. But whether they are talking at or with each other is another question.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled a Libya resolution so that senators could focus on debt issues this week, which after all was the reason why they cancelled recess.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell invited President Barack Obama to Capitol Hill to hear why a debt deal with tax increases won’t fly. And then he accepted an invitation from Obama to meet at the White House on Thursday with other congressional leaders.
Obama updated his schedule to comment on debt negotiations. He urged both parties to get out of their “comfort zones” and to leave ultimatums and political rhetoric at the door.
That’s a tall order, but herding everyone into the same room is at least a step.
Here are our top stories from Washington…
Washington Extra – Waiting for fireworks
Will we see fireworks in the debt talks next week?
So far the White House and lawmakers have been cranky about the state of negotiations, but no one has actually drawn a firm line in the sand – still hoping for a compromise.
Senators and staff can’t be happy about having their Fourth of July recess cancelled next week over debt talks, setting up a perfect environment for tempers to flare.
And no matter how much critics try to pooh-pooh the deadline for avoiding default, Treasury is sticking with Aug. 2 as the drop-debt date.
White House economic officials are expected to attend meetings on Capitol Hill next week. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have been invited but it’s unclear whether they will venture over to that end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
They may have to tread carefully to avoid tantrums after Obama likened Congress to children earlier this week.
Here are our top stories from Washington…
Washington Extra – Not enough
The word is not enough. That was the message from the United States to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who pledged reforms in a speech at Damascus University.
“What’s important now is action, not words,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
White House spokesman Jay Carney concurred: “President Assad needs to either lead that transition or get out of the way … I’m not saying the words are meaningless, but he needs to act on them … But first, he needs to stop the violence.”
The White House also announced Vice President Joe Biden and lawmakers will meet three days this week — Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — to see if they can move any closer to an agreement on the budget deficit and debt limit.
We’re guessing a week is not enough to lock up a deal. But will the talks be more meaningful than just three days of the meander? (OK so we stretched for a rhyme with condor for movie buffs).
Here are our top stories from Washington…
Bush ran on rhetoric and nation building. Once elected Bush did what was always his plan and that was pre-emptive attack. Obama ran on nation building and has proven that is his foreign policy. Romney has since the beginning of his run this time surrounded himself by Bush advisors, operatives, etc. Romney’s foreign policy of the Romney doctrin is the same as GWBush Doctrin and that is pre-emptive attack. Pre-emptive attack also pre-emptively increases the size of government, increases the deficit, un-justified costs as they are pre-emptive, and increases the defense budget with outside contractors. Romney’s domestic policy also mirrors GWBush policy. Trickle down economics no matter how you cut it. It also focuses solely on cuts and not revenue building. Cuts to the safety net, cuts to most domestic programs. Investments all in defense or defense related areas. I didn’t deem Romney qualified as the GOP nominee in 2008 and I do not now.