Tag Archives: London

Mitt Romney: the GOP’s very own geopolitical disaster

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Nicholas Kristof: “DIPLOMACY is a minefield, and Mitt Romney spent the last week blowing up his foreign policy credentials to be president. He raised doubts about his capacity to deal with global crises, and we were left hoping that if that 3 a.m. call ever went to him, he’d have set up call forwarding.

“The essential problem is that every time Romney touches foreign policy, he breaks things. He went on a friendly trip to Britain — the easiest possible test for a candidate, akin to rolling off a log — and endeared himself by questioning London’s readiness to host the Olympic Games. In the resulting firestorm, one newspaper, The Sun, denounced “Mitt the Twit.”

“[...] Then there was the Romney trip to Israel, where he insulted Palestinians and left some Jews uncomfortable with stereotyping by praising Jewish culture in the context of making money. Hmm.

“[...] Yet with the Middle East exploding in recent days because of a video insulting the Prophet Muhammad, Romney dived in with a statement that hit a trifecta: it was erroneous, inflammatory and offensive.”

And let’s not forget how Romney recently broke things with Vladimir Putin and Russia…

President Obama DNC2012: More war and defense spending, or invest in America again?

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“In a world of new threats and new challenges, you can choose leadership that has been tested and proven.  Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq.  We did.  I promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11.  We have.  We’ve blunted the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan, and in 2014, our longest war will be over.  A new tower rises above the New York skyline, al Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and Osama bin Laden is dead.

“[...] So now we face a choice. My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy, but from all that we’ve seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost America so dearly.

“After all, you don’t call Russia our number one enemy – and not al Qaeda – unless you’re still stuck in a Cold War time warp. You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally. My opponent said it was “tragic” to end the war in Iraq, and he won’t tell us how he’ll end the war in Afghanistan. I have, and I will. And while my opponent would spend more money on military hardware that our Joint Chiefs don’t even want, I’ll use the money we’re no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work – rebuilding roads and bridges; schools and runways. After two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, it’s time to do some nation-building right here at home.”

— President Obama, DNC2012

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Will there be another $77,000 tax deduction this year?

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Or is it even more of a “business loss” when the horse doesn’t make it to the individual medal competition?

It’s hard work!

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image: reagan-was-a-horrible-president

News on the $77,000 tax deduction the Romney’s Olympic dancing horse from Wonkette:

“Americans have no history of making jokes about the playthings of the rich, in this case a German-bred mare. As Mitt Romney says, if we all work hard, we’ll all get rich and own dancing horses, and will we want the cretins to rib us then? Right. So here is an objective report of the first Olympics performance from the 15-year-old German-bred mare that dances and is owned by Ann and Mitt Romney.”

  • Mitt Romney, you’ll recall, has said the dancing horse was “Ann’s thing” and he didn’t know when the dancing horse would begin competition and he had no plans to show up anyway.
  • Ann Romney, whose husband Mitt Romney has previously said that he doesn’t care about his wife’s dancing horse performing in the Olympics and won’t watch it, “was in the VIP section of the equestrian stadium at Greenwich Park for Rafalca’s competition” today, to cheer for Rafalca. Read more…

King Romney III

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The awesomeness of Gabby Douglas in GIFs

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Gabby Douglas’s Awesome Night: A GIF Guide: You know in your heart that Gabby Douglas is the most amazing high-flying hero Olympic gymnastics champion, maybe ever. But you need to understand it with your head, too, with a rational and objective analysis of her talent through GIFs. (see link for more GIFs)

Amazing!

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President Obama called the members of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team

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barackobama: President Obama called the members of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team today to congratulate them on their wins last night. Judging from their Twitter feeds, they were pretty psyched.

Mitt Romney’s European Vacation

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“I don’t know how he’ll handle the head of state job. He’s made a mess of being a tourist.” — Rahm Emanuel (via)


image: gop-circus

Hopefully never coming to the White House near you!

No apologies to Palestine, Romney blames media for negative #KissMyAss World Tour

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Mitt Romney in Downing Street
Mitt Romney – seen here talking to the media – complains that US media coverage of his overseas trip has focused on his gaffes. Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters

THE RETROACTIVE WORLD TOUR BEGINS: For some reason, Mitt seems to want to quickly change the subject from his Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad World Tour and suddenly focus on the economy? Romney thinks it’s a shame the lamestream media won’t report what’s best for his campaign, like Fox “News” does:

Mitt Romney Blames Press For Overseas Controversies: “Romney told Fox News today that the controversies were the result of the press “trying to find anything else” to write about. “I realize that there will be some in the fourth estate or whatever estate who are far more interested in finding something to write about that is unrelated to the economy, to geopolitics, to the threat of war, to the reality of conflict in Afghanistan today, to a nuclearization of Iran,” Romney said. “They are instead trying to find anything else to divert from the fact that these last four years have been tough years for our country,” he said.”

Romney denies criticizing Palestinian culture: “Mitt Romney insisted Tuesday he was not specifically talking about Palestinian culture at a fundraiser in Israel on Monday when he was quoted suggesting culture was the reason for the economic disparity between Israel and Palestine. “That’s an interesting topic that deserves scholarly analysis, but I actually didn’t address that,” Romney told Fox News’s Carl Cameron, adding he didn’t “intend” to talk about the subject in his campaign. “Instead, I will point out… that the choices a society makes have a profound impact on the economy and vitality of that society.”“

Actual words in Jerusalem: “As I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things.”

Cultural remarks aside, he also thinks that “the choices a society makes have a profound impact on the economy and vitality of that society.” And clearly, he said yesterday, Israel is winning economically. So Palestine isn’t making the right choices — but no offense?  Here’s something else he said yesterday, when he totally WASN’T discussing whose culture was better:

 ”I am overwhelmingly impressed with the hand of providence, whenever it chooses to apply itself, and also the greatness of the human spirit, and how individuals who reach for greatness and have purpose above themselves are able to build and accomplish things that could only be done by a species created in the image of God.”

Mitt forgot to talk about “the hand of providence” today and who God loves better. It’s funny how he was all over that yesterday in Jerusalem, when there was money involved.

Mitt Romney: true wimp or insecure weenie?

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This is a good piece in Newsweek by Michael Tomasky: Mitt Romney: A Candidate With a Serious Wimp Problem:

“…But the new values surface often enough—his fondness for firing people, the way he made fun of NASCAR fans’ ponchos, his reminders to us that his friends are the people who own the teams, and now his putdown of an entire nation, which happens to be our closest ally—to suggest that they won the argument.

“[...] In some respects, he’s more weenie than wimp—socially inept; at times awkwardy ingratiating, at other times mocking those “below” him, but almost always getting the situation a little wrong, and never in a sympathetic way. The evidence resonates across too many years to deny. What kind of teenager beats up on the misfit, sissy kid, pinning him down and violently cutting his hair with a pair of school scissors—the incident from Romney’s youth that The Washington Post famously reported (and Romney famously didn’t really deny) back in May? The behavior extends, through more sedate means, into adulthood. The Salt Lake Olympics remains his greatest triumph, for which he wins deserved praise. But to many of those in the know, Romney placed a heavy asterisk next to his name by attacking the men he replaced on the Olympic Committee, smearing them in his book, even after a court threw out all the corruption charges against them.

“And what kind of presidential candidate whines about a few attacks and demands an apology when the going starts to get rough? And tries to sound tough by accusing the president who killed the world’s most-wanted villain of appeasement? That’s what they call overcompensation, and it’s a dead giveaway; it’s the “tell.” This guy is nervous—terrified—about looking weak. And ironically, being terrified of looking weak makes him look weaker still.

“[...] In a similar vein, it was breathtaking, and a meaningful window into his thinking, that he thought denouncing “Obamacare” to the NAACP constituted courage. That was the opposite of courage—an easy shot aimed at people who aren’t voting for him anyway. Going to the Southern Baptist Convention and telling them they’re all wet about Mormonism? Now that would be courage. Can anyone picture Romney doing that in a million years? The Mormon God will come down from Kolob before that happens.”

Romney’s Gafftastic World Tour: onward to Poland and the Cold War Part II

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Romney left the British shaking their heads in disgust and calling him Mitt the Twit, outraged the Palestinians, acted like POTUS is a position in Netanyahu’s cabinet by promising military action in Iran if Bibi asks… What harm can he do in Poland?

Romney campaign schedule in Poland today (times ET): 

10:15 a.m. Mitt Romney participates in photo spray with Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Gdansk, Poland.
11:20 a.m. Romney participates in photo spray with former President Lech Walesa in Gdansk.
11:50 a.m. Romney visits World War II Westerplatte Memorial in Gdansk.
12:55 p.m. Romney visits Solidarity Monument Site in Gdansk.

Will there be any discussion of how the Mormon Church used to (still does?) baptize Jewish people who died in the Holocaust? My guess: no.

Telegraph: “Mitt Romney continues his foreign tour in Poland where he is due to hold talks with Donald Tusk, the prime minister, and Lech Walesa, the anti-communist leader. On the final leg of a three-stop tour designed to burnish his foreign policy credentials, the Republican presidential contender has chosen to visit a country which has notably testy relations with Russia and is now a key pillar of Nato and the EU. [...] The former Gdansk shipyard electrician who won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize for galvanising Solidarity and went on to become Poland’s first democratically-elected president in 1990 invited Romney to Poland.  

“[...] Mr Walesa, 68, has both snubbed and questioned the foreign policy of fellow Nobel laureate and Democratic challenger, US President Barack Obama. He refused a meeting with Obama during his May 2011 visit to Poland, saying it would “only amount to a photo opportunity.” In July 2009, Mr Walesa and late Czech anti-communist legend Vaclav Havel penned an open letter slamming Obama’s revamp of an anti-missile shield installation in Poland and the Czech Republic planned by his Republican predecessor President George Bush.  [...] Poland could serve as a platform from which Mr Romney could hit out at Russia – a country the candidate has repeatedly labelled a key geopolitical foe – in a public address in Warsaw on day-two of the visit when he will also meet President Bronislaw Komorowski.”