{"id":5238,"date":"2012-09-23T23:54:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-23T19:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/?p=2324"},"modified":"2012-09-23T23:54:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-23T19:54:00","slug":"why-has-mitt-romney-stopped-talking-about-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/2012\/09\/23\/why-has-mitt-romney-stopped-talking-about-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Has Mitt Romney Stopped Talking About the Middle East?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published by Communities @ Washington Times<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

SAN DIEGO<\/strong>, September 23, 2012 \u2014 Presidential candidate Mitt Romney continues to aggressively challenge Obama\u2019s economic policies, but he\u2019s been conspicuously quiet about foreign policy since being attacked by that pack of wolves called the mainstream media.<\/p>\n

After crawling away to lick his wounds, Romney 4.0 became 3.0 once again. Sooner or later he\u2019ll be forced to return to foreign policy. In fact, one of the three debates will key in on that theme. When the governor finally has the stomach for another round, he must not apologize for Round One.<\/p>\n

Only a few weeks ago, our country was led to believe that November\u2019s election would be about the economy and nothing more.\u00a0Romney probably preferred that. As a successful businessman, he has much to bring to the table. And then, faster than people could repeat Joe Biden\u2019s mindless mantra about Osama bin Laden being dead and GM being alive, an October surprise proved itself doubly surprising by showing up in September.<\/p>\n

The bottom dropped out of America\u2019s involvement with the Middle East. At least part of the commotion had to do with the now infamous 14 minute YouTube video for the movie Muslim Innocence and its less than flattering portrayal of the Prophet Mohammad. Romney criticized the American embassy in Egypt for attempting to calm things down by offering a condemnation of the video that sounded too much like an apology.<\/p>\n

At a press conference one day later, Romney started out looking confident and unwilling to walk back his previous words: \u201cThe embassy in Cairo put out a statement after their grounds had been breached, Protesters were inside the grounds. They reiterated that statement after the breach. I think it\u2019s a terrible course for America to stand in apology for our values.\u201d<\/p>\n

His speech was greeted with a barrage of interrogations that seemed almost as coordinated as the Egyptian and Libyan attacks on our embassies. Poor Romney looked like he never knew what hit him. With an awkward smile, he listened to questions that sounded more like lectures. Reporters made it clear in no uncertain terms that he had no right to openly criticize a sitting president\u2019s foreign affairs, a position they didn\u2019t seem to have very well fleshed out back in 2008 when candidate Obama offered generous comments about George Bush, Afghanistan, and Iraq based upon his \u201cforeign experience\u201d as a community organizer.<\/p>\n

If the reporters looked like they were operating with a joint attack plan, it\u2019s only because they were.<\/p>\n

Not knowing that the podium mic was already on before Romney entered the room, the press corps was caught organizing their efforts, deciding who would ask which question. Such preparation in and of itself is not so unusual. Reporters will often talk amongst themselves to split up the questions. What then was the problem?\u00a0 Most of the questions seemed like little more than a variation of the same question. Here are two samples:<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Romney, do you think, though, coming so soon after the event really has unfolded overnight was appropriate, to be weighing in on this as this crisis is unfolding in real time?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor, some people have said that you jumped the gun a little in putting that statement out last night and that you should have waited until more details were available. Do you regret having that statement come out so early before we learned about all the things that were happening?\u201d<\/p>\n

In all fairness to the reporters, there are differences between these two questions. One asked if Romney\u2019s remarks were appropriate. The other asked if he regretted his statement. Yes, the balance and variety was stunning.<\/p>\n

Others have also weighed in, including Democratic strategist Peter Fenn, who said of Romney, \u201cHe threw an incendiary bomb in the middle of a horrible and life-threatening international situation. This is not the mark of a leader but rather the mark of a desperate candidate who puts his political survival above those who serve this country.\u00a0In short, it is his actions and words that are “disgraceful\u201d (USA Today, September 12, 2012).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always fun to hear a political strategist accuse a candidate from the opposite party of being political.<\/p>\n

Was Romney being political by commenting on the embassy\u2019s apology? Of course he was being political.\u00a0He\u2019s a politician. That\u2019s what politicians do.\u00a0They engage in politics. But politician in and of itself is not a dirty word. Mitt Romney has an election in less than two months. Either he or one other man will live in the White House come January. All hell has broken out in the Middle East. Are we not supposed to hear about how Romney would handle things if he was president?\u00a0If Romney\u2019s campaign team is advising him to back off, he should fire them and get a new team.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, what about the guy who already is president? He certainly doesn\u2019t seem to have forgotten about the election. Obama flew to Las Vegas for a fundraiser the same day we found out that 4 people were killed at our Libyan embassy and mobs were still gathering outside our embassy in Egypt.<\/p>\n

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was going to be in New York and asked President Obama for a meeting, his request was turned down. \u00a0President Obama simply did not have the time. Campaign gigs like The David Letterman Show are too important. All Netanyahu wanted was to talk about that accelerated Iranian nuclear bomb program which threatens to annihilate Israel.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear. Both of our presidential candidates are behaving like politicians. The differences between them are twofold: 1) Obama does it better and with greater finesse. 2) Obama is not only the Democratic candidate of 2012; he is also our current president. It would serve our country well if he were a better Commander-in-Chief than Campaigner-in-Chief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published by Communities @ Washington Times SAN DIEGO, September 23, 2012 \u2014 Presidential candidate Mitt Romney continues to aggressively challenge Obama\u2019s economic policies, but he\u2019s been conspicuously quiet about foreign policy since being attacked…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aboutpolitics","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobsiegel.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}