Ordinarily,
U.S. Presidential candidates travel overseas before elections to
burnish their bona fides and to demonstrate to the nation and the world
at large that she or he is ready for the Oval office.
Somehow candidate
Mitt Romney managed to accomplish the opposite.
On a U.K. visit, as
London was about to become the first nation ever to host the Olympic
Games for three times –the first was in 1908 and second in 1948–
candidate Romney promptly insulted the British when he questioned their
preparations during a television interview with NBC.
Two elected British
officials, including the prime minister quickly returned the courtesy:
David Cameron declared: “We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the
busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course,
it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.” The
“middle of nowhere” reference was widely seen as targeted at Salt Lake
City, which is the capital of Romney’s Mormon faith and hosted the 2002
Winter Olympics.
“There is a guy called Mitt Romney—-who wants to
know if we are ready,” observed Boris Johnson, the mayor of London
before tens of thousands of people gathered for the opening: “Are we
ready?” The deafening response was obvious of course.
Elsewhere, The Sun’s banner headline declared “Mitt the Twitt” and The Daily Mail asked: “Who invited party-pooper Romney?”
Romney
is not intellectually nimble of his feet, which is actually a critical
skill for a would-be commander in chief. Romney is good at one thing:
observing flowcharts, determining cost variables, and making cuts. In
any other realm, he’s a fish out of water. In an awkward press
conference in London, in an attempt to recover his credibility, he
disclosed to the world that he had been briefed by M16; a courtesy call
that was supposed to remain secret — remarkable, coming from a
desperate candidate who has made unsubstantiated claims that the White
House has been leaking U.S. secrets.
The most damning
development for Romney during his trip was when ABC News’ David Muir asked him whether in the past he had ever paid less than 13.9% in taxes.
Stunningly, the Republican candidate said he couldn’t recall and would
have to get back to the reporter with the answer. “I haven’t
calculated that,” Romney said. “I’m happy to go back and look, but my
view is I’ve paid all the taxes required by law.
Since then,
he’s been avoiding the follow up. The issue is going to hound Romney beyond the Republicans’ nominating convention and could still derail his
candidacy.
In Israel, seated next to his most prominent donor
Sheldon Adelson, who’s vowed to spend $100 million to help defeat President Obama, Romney said the Palestinians were envious: The
Israelis were successful because their culture was superior to the
Palestinians. Top Palestinian officials promptly denounced the remarks
and called the man who one day wants to preside over peace talks between
them and Israel a “racist.”
His aides also made it clear that a
President Romney would support a unilateral Israeli strike against Iran
to destroy Tehran’s presumed nuclear weapons program — this regardless
of the fact that the official U.S. policy of comprehensive sanctions
has already pressed Iran in a tight corner and is backed by U.S. allies
at a cost to their own economies.
Romney’s campaign officials
had to come back and deny the Republican candidate was referring to a
military strike: there are two options, a military strike and
comprehensive sanctions.
The pressure of the missteps was wearing on Romney before his return to the United States.
Romney crowned his European tour in Poland with another setback. After
he placed a wreath on the Tomb of the unknown soldier he tried to dodge
questions shouted from a scrum of reporters who wanted to know if he
had any more comments for the Palestinians and if he believed his gaffes
had undermined his trip. Romney’s campaign spokesperson Rick Gorka
tried to intimidate the reporters into laying off his boss.
“Show some respect,” he said, “this is a holy site for the Polish people.”
As the reporters persisted Gorka suggested that the assembled members of the media could kiss his rear end.
Who
could blame the reporters for wanting some answers. When candidate
Obama toured Europe, where he was greeted by huge crowds, including
100,000 in Berlin, he answered about 25 questions from the media: Romney
had answered a total of three –two of the questions were related to
the Olympics– by the time he wrapped up his visit.
A few weeks
ago, Romney routinely brought up the issue of President Obama’s
“competence” and claimed the president was a “nice guy” who was simply
“in over his head.” It’s clear that the candidate was referring to
himself.
Is Mitt Romney ready to be commander in chief and to
handle U.S. domestic and foreign affairs? That’s the one question he did
answer: a resounding NO.
“Speaking Truth To Empower.”
