If there was one thing Mitt Romney wanted to achieve in last night’s debate—apart from scoring a win over Barack Obama on foreign policy (he could dream)—it was to conjure up a terrifying prospect that is just around the corner and that only he can stop: nuclear Iran.
To watch Romney last night was to see a man grasping for straws. The truth is that if Romney were to be elected president, his strategy with respect to controlling a pre-nuclear Iran would not differ markedly from the Obama administration. Indeed, aside from a different rhetorical and more openly multilateral approach, Obama’s Iran strategy has mirrored George W. Bush’s position: UN resolutions and tightened economic sanctions.
Multiple times Romney returned to the “Iran is four years closer to a nuclear weapon” meme, not so much to establish neoconservative foreign policy bona fides, but to frighten conservatives and swing voters with propaganda. The way Romney returned to the meme again and again demonstrated the debate strategy. It was essentially the GOP’s ace-in-the-hole for the third and final debate, but instead of coming off as presidential, Romney came off as jingoistic. Then, of course, sites like Breitbart parrot Romney’s jingoistic fear-mongering, adding power to stupidity.
“The President’s statement that things are going so well, look, I look at what’s happening around the world, and I see Iran four years closer to a bomb,” said Romney at one point in the debate.
It could just be posturing for election, but with the GOP’s recent foreign policy track record under Bush, it sounds rather like Romney is beating the drums of war. Indeed, it all seems like a war-first strategy, instead of bringing the full power of the international community to bear on Iran.
Obama has proven that he is a strong and wise commander-in-chief in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and beyond; there’s no need to return to the reckless, hegemonic foreign policy of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
October 23, 2012 at 6:44 pm, Brian Maple said:
Mitt Romney's plan has always been to manipulate. President Obama's debate win was truly impressive and now makes three out of four debate wins for Obama/Biden. People seem to, finally, be realizing that Mitt Romney and the GOP have based an enormous amount of their election strategy on lies, hated and deceit. From the 72 million Americans that will be left without any health insurance, whatsoever, by year 2020, under Romney's plan (determined by two independent, non-partisan research studies available to the public), to women and minorities being drastically stripped of their equal rights because of his refusal to support initiatives like the Lily Ledbetter Act which enables women to be paid the same as men provided they do the same work (the first act passed by President Obama) or Hospital Visitation Rights which allows gay people the same visitation rights as straight people when a loved one is in hospital, Americans are seeing Mitt Romney for who he really is. From the West Coast to the East Coast and all of our our great country in between, we Americans are seeing from these debates that a Romney/Ryan plan will leave the middle class being burdened with much higher taxes while the wealthiest Americans pay less in tax because "it will help inspire job hiring" which evidence showed us in the Bush years, does not happen. Out of four debates neither Romney or Ryan could specify their "tax plan" despite being given numerous opportunities. That is not honest. That is not American. That is not integrity and that is certainly not Christian. Mitt Romney also has the highest disapproval rating, of all time, of any Presidential candidate, ever. Higher than Bush. We must understand this. The entire world hates the guy. We must be proud to be Americans. We must have a President who represents all of America and that we can be proud of. We are coming out of one of the most difficult economic times in our history in large part because of two wars we are finally ending. We are bringing our brothers and sisters home. But we cannot go backward. We must go forward. We are Americans. And we will prevail.