Opinion: Mitt Romney's Terrible Foreign Trip
A couple of months ago, W. Mitt Romney graded Barack Obama on foreign policy. He gave the President a failing F.
After the past week, it is clear that Romney has no clue about foreign policy and should not judge others.
In retrospect, the failing grade is actually high praise. It turns out the most damaging thing Romney could have said was "if you look at the way I conduct myself when it comes to foreign policy, I think you will find it to be identical to the President's behavior."
Now that would hurt.
Here are a few reviews of Romney's International Tour:
"American Borat"
"Gaffepalooza"
"Worse than Sarah Palin"
"Total Car Crash"
"Devoid of charm and mildly offensive"
And that was BEFORE Romney offended a good part of the world by shockingly going offscript at a fundraiser and making an argument for the power of cultural superiority that Palestinians called racist.
Those headlines came BEFORE Romney complimented socialized healthcare by citing Israel's lower GDP spending on healthcare as a goal for the United States.
And those reviews even came BEFORE a Romney spokesperson told reporters in Poland to "kiss his ass" and to "shove it".
What a really interesting week!
Can a guy who can’t get it right when he’s just a tourist judge the Commander-in-Chief, let alone apply for his job?
Were the term not already taken, Team Romney could easily call themselves the Not Ready for Prime Time Players. But the stumbles and blunders are not funny.
There are real threats to our national security and real dangers in the world. And in the diplomacy these gaffes, missteps, and offenses have real consequences.
In the past week Romney showed that he has no solutions, only platitudes, when he delivered his "major foreign policy speech" before departing. He then showed he has no diplomatic skills when he embarked on what should have been an easy photo-op trip to the Olympics.
Team Romney is back on American soil. They are already acting as if the trip never happened.
They are back to the one note campaign. They have no other strategy because any time they stray, be it an education policy trip to Philadelphia or a jaunt abroad to remind people Romney was an Olympic organizer, Team Romney falls on its face. Not a good sign for a man who wants to wield all the complex levers of power that come with being President of the United States.
About Bill Buck
Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
