Rob Horowitz: Romney’s Ill-Timed Foreign Policy Punch

MItt Romney's hasty, inaccurate and harsh criticism last week of the Obama Administration's initial response to the attacks on our embassies was a big mistake that made the Republican candidate appear to be putting political expediency ahead of the national interest.

 

While events were still unfolding in Libya and Egypt, the Romney campaign rushed out a media release personally approved by the candidate that inaccurately criticized the Obama Administration for issuing an "apology for American values and "sympathizing with the attackers" after the US embassies were attacked. As we all know now, however, the statement was issued by the U.S. Embassy in Egypt before either embassy was attacked and the statement was not an apology. The non-partisan fact checking service --- FactCheck.org --- points out that Romney “faulted US diplomats for failing to condemn actions that hadn’t yet happened.”

 

Undeterred by such a large and blatant mistake on this sensitive issue, Romney decided to stir the pot further, holding a media conference the next morning saying it was “a disgrace to apologize for American values.” When questioned repeatedly by reporters about the timing and accuracy of his position, Romney could not explain his position nor did he supply a coherent foreign policy world view that might justify it.

Tellingly, while conservative talkers such as Rush Limbaugh rushed to Romney’s defense, most Republican elected officials were silent and the Republican Congressional leadership issued the usual statements of national unity and expressions of support and mourning that one expects in the immediate aftermath of these kinds of events.

 

Even though the November election is just around the corner, Romney’s actions were so unbecoming that some prominent Republican operatives came forward to strongly criticize him, including former McCain aide Mark Salter and former McCain and Bush operative Steve Schmidt. The prominent conservative columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan told Fox News "I don’t feel that Mr. Romney has been doing himself any favors Sometimes when bad things happen, cool words or no words are the way to go." Noonan later appeared in a Wall Street Journal video saying that when she watched the media conference she thought that "Romney looked like Richard Nixon."

And Noonan wasn't referring to Nixon's foreign policy expertise.

President Barack Obama had a measured response to this crisis which served as a favorable contrast with Romney. Granted, the President was also advantaged by the tendency of the public to rally around the commander-in-chief during a foreign policy crisis which is exactly what made Romney’s criticisms so ill-timed. Further, the consistent high marks the President receives from the American public for his handling of foreign policy as evidenced by national polling over time should have been a warning to the Romney campaign that the same threadbare caricatures of the President as "apologizing all the time" or 'sympathizing with our enemies' simply does not pass the smell test with voters who all know Obama ordered the Navy Seal operation that ended the life of Osama bin Laden.

 

This is not to suggest that there are not legitimate criticisms that can be made of President Obama’s handing of issues in the Middle East. As demonstrations spread to more nations throughout the week, what is to become of the so-called Arab Spring is certainly an open question and Obama may yet pay a political price.

In order to capitalize on this, Romney will need to develop a more deft touch and outline a foreign policy that addresses current challenges in a new way. Nearly everyone, and that includes Obama, recognizes the importance of American strength, but most voters don’t want a return to the expansionist neo-conservative vision of an American Colossus going it alone and remaking the world in its own image That hard line view is what seemed to be at the core of the Bush foreign policy. At a time when American resources are limited, Mitt Romney must spell out his own approach to the unrest in the Middle East; the Iranian nuclear challenge; the continued threat of terrorism; and the need for alliances in what remains an uncertain and dangerous world. That is what a serious candidate does, instead of nakedly and clumsily attempting to capitalize on a foreign policy crisis.
 

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.