His lack of foreign policy experience, lack of foreign policy positions, and his unwillingness to be serious about international relations.
Back in 2008, Hillary Clinton released a memorable commercial during the primaries. Basically, it asked, "Who would you want to answer the 3 a.m. call in the White House?" Of course, we would want Hillary to take that call, because of her vast foreign policy experience and international connections. It was an effective ad, highlighting in a very clever way the deficiencies in Barack Obama's resume.
Ultimately, Barack Obama was nominated, and he chose Joe Biden for his running mate--an elder statesman with a ton of foreign policy experience. When John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate, the difference was glaring.
Then Barack Obama was elected president, and what he did next was brilliant--he asked HILLARY CLINTON to be his Secretary of State. Yes! She was going to be answering some of those 3 a.m. calls! Our reputation around the world, which was pretty much in the toilet when George W left office, has vastly improved in the last four years. As a matter of fact, if citizens of the world could vote, they would vote for President Obama for a 2nd term.
Barack Obama's stellar relations with other countries leaders is due in large part to the advisers he has; not only Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, but a host of others. It proves that he took foreign policy and relations seriously when he was running, and after he was elected. He took time to visit other countries and speak with their leaders, and their people. He used his experiences to make campaign promises in 2008, and he has kept many of those promises. Most importantly, people saw a stark difference between him and John McCain, and they welcomed that fresh way of dealing with the world, instead of the same old, same old, "Guns a Blazing" approach.
Mitt Romney? He visited England during the Summer Olympics, and he insulted them. Next stop: Israel. I've spoken of his love affair with Israel, at the expense of the Palestinians, and it showed. Next stop--Poland?? "Meh," was their reaction.
Three countries on your tour, and you manage to insult more than you appeased? Not a great record.
So, you say, maybe Romney will surround himself with superb foreign policy experts? Welllllll......no. Romney's foreign policy team includes 17 (out of 24) advisers from President George W Bush. These advisers include Cofer Black, the guy who really, really, really liked to waterboard people (he's undoubtedly the reason why neither Bush nor Cheney can leave this country, lest they be arrested for War Crimes). Another adviser, John Lehman, is probably responsible for Mitt Romney's statements that RUSSIA is our greatest threat. Yeah, Russia.
Stop and think about what I'm saying here--Mitt Romney has surrounded him with George W Bush advisers. And we all know how that turned out.
Also, I ask you to watch clips from the third Presidential Debate--the Foreign Policy debate. Oh yeah, he said all the right, banal things about human rights (presumably only available if you're male and heterosexual) and his plan (except he didn't mention specifics except the need to build up the Navy....yes! The Navy! Got some major donors with steel companies, do we??). But most of the rest of the evening was spent either agreeing with President Obama, or trying very, very hard to talk instead about domestic policy. Which was totally not what the debate was about.
Finally, a thought from the very intelligent Rachel Maddow:
"It turns
out you don't get to decide what sort of presidency you have. George Bush was essentially saying he wanted
to have a domestic policy presidency. Remember
compassionate conservatism? H e wanted less of a role in the world. You don't get to decide what circumstances
confront you and you don't get to opt out of your responsibility. And some presidencies, for better, for
worse, sometimes for a year at a time, sometimes for whole presidential terms,
sometimes those presidencies end up being about America in the world. And the commander-in-chief part of the
job. Sometimes presidencies end up being
about war. George Bush I don't believe set out to have that kind of presidency,
but that's the kind of presidency he got. Into the vacuum of his lack of any sustentative
idea on foreign policy at all stepped a well-organized group of unelected,
opportunistic radicals who over the course of the next eight years brought upon
this country the most disastrous foreign policy in American history and we're not
over it. Now while we're in the 12th
year of one of the wars started in that era, the Republican party is offering
another choice for president who is promising a non-foreign policy
presidency. Mitt Romney did not mention
the issue of foreign policy in his closing statement at the foreign policy
debate last night. This is not his field
and he's not pretending that it is. He
doesn't want it to be his field. Nobody
has perfect foresight about what their presidency is going to be like, what
they are going to have the option of working on or not working on. But the pressing nature of this issue now is
not that it's hypothetical. It's about
seeing what's going on right now. We
are still actively coping with one of the foreign policy disasters left over
from the last time a guy said he didn't want to work on this as an issue….that
but is a lack of seriousness about something that affects 68,000 American
families directly. 68,000 American families who have real skin in the game
right now because a family member of theirs is in Afghanistan, which is our war. 68,000 Americans whose lives
will be in Mitt Romney 's hands if he's elected. He can't be bothered to come up with a
position on it. This is not a question
of whether you agree with Mitt Romney or if you disagree with Mitt Romney on
whatever his policy of the moment is. The amazing thing here, and the reason
the debate was important, is that the Republican party just four years after
George Bush, the Republican party has nominated somebody to be president who
doesn't seem to take this part of being president seriously. He doesn't care about this as a matter of
policy. He doesn't think you do either.
He doesn't think it's relevant.
A group of Mitt Romney foreign policy advisers told The New York Times
that even they are not sure that Mitt Romney even reads his campaign's own
briefing materials on the subject of foreign policy."
Mitt Romney does not care about the rest of the world. Really, he doesn't.
I know people who have loved ones with "skin in the game". I care about them. I DO NOT want him to take that 3 a.m.call. For that matter, I do not want him to take a 9 a.m. call. And most of the world agrees with me.
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