Even if you support a candidate, it’s really OK not to agree with every single thing he says or does. It’s not like if you admit that Romney made a mistake, suddenly everyone reading your posts will instantly turn into an Obama supporter.
It wasn’t a mistake, it was pandering, which is worse. I was just pointing out that this particular pander is normal for Presidential candidates. They almost all say it, and they all go back on it the second they take office.
I’m happy to point out Romney’s flaws, but I’m not going to allow him to be singled out when his flaws are shared by his opponent, or in this case, nearly every other candidate before him. It would be like criticizing Aaron Rodgers for throwing six interceptions last season. it has no value if it’s not compared to what else is going on. Romney’s opponents are making great hay out of attacking him for basically being a normal politician, even cynically attacking him for the exact same things Obama does on a regular basis. Context does matter.
The thing about Jerusalem is something every U.S. presidential candidate says when visiting here. We know not to take them too seriously. As for Iran, all he said is that he’ll be “tougher” than Obama - again, par for the course.
Don’t forget that Mitt has also been mocked by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/9169275/Dmitry-Medvedev-says-Mitt-Romney-comment-smelled-of-Hollywood.html )
I’d say Mitt is in the running for American who has been openly mocked by the most world leaders.
What would really top it off is if little Kim of North Korea mocked him over the “Dear Leader” comment.
That’s nothing but a missed opportunity. He missed his opportunity to not be roundly mocked on the world stage.
In fairness, it was an adviser, not Romney himself, who claimed that Syria is an important ally of the Soviet Union. Just like it was another adviser, not Romney himself, who drew the Etch-a-Sketch analogy.
And just like it was another adviser who said Romney would restore Anglo-Saxon relations with Great Britain…
If this is the case and Romney’s people aren’t getting the right message out he needs to fire them. We know he likes to.
Romney deserves to be mocked for what his people do. They are HIS people and HIS representatives. It doesn’t speak well for his “business sense” if all of his top advisers are working on decades old information. If their incompetence unacceptable to him, I’m sure he’d fire them. But, alas, they are probably all guaranteed cabinet positions in a Romney administration.
Perhaps they’ll bring back hiding under desks as a response to bomb raid sirens… that’ll be fun and desks today are so much stronger than in the good old days.
Will Mitt make us all duck and cover by issuing prank air raid warnings?
More from the man-child in the Promised Land.. Apparently GDP is a measure of cultural vitality and spiritual worthiness, or something.
In response:
Romney also praised the Israeli health care system, which has lower costs as a percentage of GDP than the US system. And has features he’s spoken against. I guess national health care is just for other nations.
I think Romney is starting to regret hiring Don Rickles as a speechwriter.
Just looking at wikipedia, it seems Israel has kind of a combination of a national health service plus an individual mandate. What’s not to like?
But really – I was trying to reserve judgment about Romney’s trip simply on the basis of the London flaps. But this trip is looking like an actual disaster. There’s a part of me that wants Romney to do a little better in Poland, just because there’s a reasonable chance that he could be the next president, and I would hate to have people looking back at the Bush II as a more capable diplomat.
According to this, US aid to Israel reached about $3.45 billion and google says Israel’s population is about 7.8m, or around $440 per person.
Google says Palestine’s population is about 4m and they’ve received about $88m, or $22 per person.
Perhaps these have effects on their economies too?
You see, Israel has bridges and roads and long established universities, so these people didn’t do it on their own.
The only way this gets to be more fun would be if he hires Jimmy Carter’s translator for his Poland trip.
And aqueducts!
His Poland gaffe will probably be more along the lines of complimenting the architecture of the Palace of Culture and Science.
Romney should have been extra careful after his London gaffes. Now he has sparked outrage by calling the Palestinians culturally inferior to the Israelis. He is a complete bonehead. What will he do in Poland? Tell his favorite Polish jokes?
I think he will ask Lech Walesa for tips on crushing unions.