Mr. Romney goes abroad
July 23, 2012, 9:22 pm
Posted by Margaret O'Brien Steinfels
The requisite trip abroad for presidential candidates has come around, and Mitt Romney is off this week for his. My take at Commonweal’s web-site: “Hawk Talk.”
I hope that he will be asked how he and his friends define “American exceptionalism,” though granted it’s not unheard of for that phrase to drop lightly from Obama’s lips.
And will he suggest to our friends abroad that perhaps it’s time for them occasionally to step up to the plate when needed? Just yesterday I heard some pundit on the BBC telling me that that America must take the lead in solving the problem of Bashar-el Assad, as if no one else had any responsibility.
Not the job of the EU, or anyone else, in short. So when Romney wins, and the Ryan budget becomes law, with its full “defense” spending and cutbacks everywhere else, will we be able to say that it is our blood and our money that pays for France’s 35-hour work week, early retirement, and rich pensions; that pays for Italian corruption, Rome’s huge and enormously expensive Chamber of Deputies; and Italian and Greek tax-evasion?
Or, for that matter, Europe’s less expensive and more effective universal health care programs?
As I write this Mr. Romney is talking to the Veterans o Foreign Wars. He is actually speaking with passion — the first time I haven’t thought he is really a robot. His message is very aggressive. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
He must be excited about having the chance to attack Obama.
the first time I haven’t thought he is really a robot.
Actually he is man with a bunch of sons, married to a really nice lady battling two diseases, makes a lot of money, practices an exotic variant of Christianity, and wants to reassure Israel of America’s commitment. Perhaps you meant the snark in a mildly ironic way; I prefer to believe that he is a straightforward American man of no discernible quirks, no pot-induced neuroses, no anxiety about looking hip and/or cool, in short, a man intellectuals love to hate and thus not worthy to lead this nation. From my perspective, the above makes him outstanding, certainly better than our present leader.
“I prefer to believe that he is a straightforward American man of no discernible quirks, no pot-induced neuroses, no anxiety about looking hip and/or cool, in short, a man intellectuals love to hate and thus not worthy to lead this nation. From my perspective, the above makes him outstanding, certainly better than our present leader.”
You make him sound like George W. Bush…except for the sons and the exotic variant….
Bob S.==
I can disagree with someone without thinking he is affectively deficient. I certainly didn’t think the same thing about Sen. McCain or even Dubya, and certainly not his father. The fact is up until this speech I haven’t seen any spark in Romny’s eyes. Sometimes he smiles, but his eyes don’t crinkle at the edges, as most people’s do when they’re pleased about something or laughing. I don’t remember his laughing out loud either. (Most politicians can and do.) I’m seriously concerned that the man is either extraordinarily repressed about ordinary social values, or he’s an actor who can hide his feelings at will. There are such people..
I don’t doubt he loves his family. But he shows precious little emotion even about it.
Just checked one of his sites. He does have some shots with the ends of his eyes crinkling, but the man’s eye-brows never seem to move — they’re always straight across in one line. Sigh.
http://contact.photoshelter.com/gallery/-/G0000wrY9.T4D1qk/
I don’t doubt he loves his family. But he shows precious little emotion even about it.
Now Ann, I am surprised that someone of your education and discernment would adapt the outlook of many of our celebrity- and glamor- obsessed young people, who tweeze through the minutiae of people’s facial expressions in order to detect evidence of… whatever.
Bob S. ==
Whether or not you’re aware of it, we ALL are register other people’s facial expressions, whether we are conscious of noticing them or not. That includes you. At least I took the trouble to try to discover if I was distorting his appearance. That can also happen to all of us too.
Why on earth do you think that people’s expressions are trivial? They’re one of our greatest means of communication.
@Bob Schwartz (7/24, 4:59 pm)
“I prefer to believe that he is a straightforward American man of no discernible quirks, no pot-induced neuroses, no anxiety about looking hip and/or cool….”
I think there’s limited value in debating the personalities and family lives of presidential candidates. Having said that, I just want to observe that your description of Gov. Romney could, it seems to me, just as easily apply to Pres. Obama.
Like Romney, Obama appears to be happily married to a “really nice lady” and to enjoy being a father. As for personal faith, Obama’s version of Christianity (Congregational) is, for what it’s worth, more firmly in the American mainstream.
Returning to the central issue (foreign policy) of this thread: Like all American presidents since Truman, Obama has directed a foreign policy that is staunchly supportive of Israel.
As for Romney’s foreign policy, like his domestic policy, he seems to have adopted the advice of some of the more extreme voices in the Republican Party. I think it’s reasonable to conclude that if elected, Romney would enact (or attempt to enact) the policies he is campaigning on.
The fact that Romney doesn’t know that Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist anymore tells a lot:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/commentary-on-romney-s-visit-to-europe-a-846382.html
Jim McCrea –
Thanks for the site. Romney’s 48 page foreign policy statement does even mention either the European Union or NATO. Whom does he think he’ll be dealing with — business organizations only? The man seems to live in an alternate universe.
Oops — does NOT even mention NATO and the EU.