His October 22nd foreign policy debate with Governor Mitt Romney may
hold some clues. Naturally, you wouldn’t expect either debater to focus
on Ukraine, but it’s still striking just how little attention was paid
to Ukraine’s neighborhood—Europe and Russia.
Neither Obama nor Romney mentioned Europe or the European Union, even
once. Ditto for Germany. France, the United Kingdom, and Poland got one
mention apiece, but only in passing, while Greece got two, but only as a
metaphor for a fate that needs to be avoided. Russia was mentioned [1] 10 times, mostly in the below exchange:
OBAMA: Governor Romney, I’m glad that you recognize that al-Qaeda is a
threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what’s the biggest
geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia, not al-Qaeda; you
said Russia, and the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign
policy back because, you know, the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.But Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want
to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social
policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s…. You
indicated that we shouldn’t be passing nuclear treaties with Russia
despite the fact that 71 senators, Democrats and Republicans, voted for
it….ROMNEY: …First of all, Russia I indicated is a geopolitical foe….
It’s a geopolitical foe, and I said in the same—in the same paragraph I
said, and Iran is the greatest national security threat we face. Russia
does continue to battle us in the UN time and time again. I have clear
eyes on this. I’m not going to wear rose-colored glasses when it comes
to Russia, or Mr. Putin. And I’m certainly not going to say to him, I’ll
give you more flexibility after the election. After the election, he’ll
get more backbone.
Beats me what all this Russia talk amounts to. Perhaps the most we
can conclude is that incoherently expressed sentiments may amount to an
incoherent policy.
