So, to sum up:
First Mitt went to England where he:
- insulted the organizers of the London Olympics;
- pissed off Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron;
- got mocked by Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnson in front of a crowd of tens of thousands;
- pissed off Britain’s entire foreign policy and intelligence establishment by revealing where and when he’d met with the head of MI 6; and,
- confirmed George Bernard Shaw’s observation that “England and America are two countries separated by a common language” when he took a “look out the backside of 10 Downing Street“, which in contemporary British English means, roughly, to “look out the Prime Minister’s ass“.
Next he went to Israel where he:
- basically said that “Israel can bomb Iran any time it wants and America will be happy to inherit the blowback”;
- repeated the assertion he made in his 2010 book that “culture makes all the difference“ in explaining the disparity between Israeli and Palestinian GDP;
- then went on Fox News to say that he “did not speak about the Palestinian culture or the decisions made in their economy“;
- then completed the very difficult 2 day flip-flop-flip by writing a National Review column claiming that “the significant disparity between Israeli and Palestinian living standards was powerfully influenced by (culture)“;
- told ABC News he’d be “happy to go back and look” at whether he ever paid federal income taxes at a rate lower than the 13.9% he paid in 2010; and,
- praised Israel’s socialistic medical system for its low costs and universal coverage.
Finally he went to Poland where he managed to avoid making any ridiculous or dangerous statements.
His press secretary, on the other hand, told journalists ““Kiss my ass. This is a holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.” as they attempted to ask Romney questions when he was leaving the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw.
This is a trip that the Romney campaign spent months planning for. It was designed to burnish Mitt’s foreign policy credentials…or at least demonstrate that he could observe diplomatic niceties with some of the United States’ closest allies.
Not only was the trip a failure from that perspective, it also tarnished the one remaining credential on Romney’s resume—his experience running the Salt Lake City Olympics—that he was still willing to talk about. (Now that he no longer wants to discuss Bain Capital, his record as governor of Massachusetts, his faith, fortune or family.)
Romney’s supporters have been reduced to saying (quite correctly) that most American voters don’t care much about foreign policy. But what a week like this does is narrow, even if only incrementally, Romney’s ability to maneuver as he tries to do what he can to rise from 45% in recent electoral polls to 51% on Election Day. With 14 weeks left, he can’t afford too many more “victories” like this one.
Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/
