RENO, Nev. - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama on July 24 of weakness in the face of U.S. adversaries and promised he would be firm against Iran and China as he prepares to head overseas to boost his foreign policy credentials.
The former Massachusetts governor visits Britain, Israel and
Poland this week to try to disprove Democratic accusations that
he is inexperienced abroad.
As U.S. presidential candidates often do, Romney vowed to
maintain America’s leading role in the world. But his comments
were among the most direct yet in his criticism of Obama’s
handling of Washington’s allies and foes.
“This is very simple: If you don’t want America to be the
strongest nation on Earth, I am not your president,” Romney told
a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “You have that
president today.”
Speaking in an animated way, the Republican blamed his Nov.
6 election rival for a cooling of relations with Israel and for
“shabby treatment” of the key U.S. ally in the Mideast.
Although U.S. voters remain focused on the economy,
international issues like the war in Afghanistan, the conflict
in Syria and the growing influence of China make for a critical
backdrop in the campaign for the Nov. 6 election.
Romney promised a hard line against Iran to prevent it from
producing a nuclear weapon and said, “There must be a full
suspension of any enrichment, whatsoever, period.”
“It is a mistake – and sometimes a tragic one – to think
that firmness in American foreign policy can bring only tension
and conflict,” Romney said.
“PHOTO-OPS” TRIP
Obama’s campaign dismissed Romney’s coming foreign trip,
including a visit to the Olympic Games in London, as lacking in
substance, underscoring the Democrats’ effort to depict him as a
foreign policy lightweight.
Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that according to
Romney’s schedule he is going overseas “to do some fundraising
and he has some photo-ops.”
“These several days are not going to help him jump over that
bar and convince the American people he wants to have a serious
conversation about foreign policy,” she said.
Romney pledged to take a tough line against China and Russia, and blamed the White House for national security leaks
to the media about the raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama
bin Laden and cyber-warfare against Iran.
“What kind of White House would reveal classified material
for political gain?” Romney said. “I’ll tell you right now: Mine
won’t.”
Attorney General Eric Holder appointed two chief federal
prosecutors last month to spearhead an investigation into
suspected leaks of classified information amid allegations the
White House made the disclosures to boost Obama’s re-election
chances.
“This conduct is contemptible,” Romney said. “It betrays our
national interest. It compromises our men and women in the
field. And it demands a full and prompt investigation, with
explanation and consequence,” Romney said.
The two candidates are running close in opinion polls but
surveys often give Obama relatively high marks for his handling
of foreign policy, helped by the killing last year of bin Laden.
Romney is searching for a way to hit Obama on national security.
“Given the inability of Romney to find a contrast on foreign
policy that works toward his election, he is attacking on
alleged leaks in the hope that something will stick to Obama’s
record as commander in chief,” said political analyst Dante
Scala, a professor at the University of New Hampshire.
In his speech, Romney also criticized the “sequestration”
trigger Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to last
summer.
The deal puts in place an automatic $1 trillion budget cut –
half of that in defense spending – that Romney says is an
“arbitrary, across-the-board budget reduction that would saddle
the military with a trillion dollars in cuts, severely shrink
our force structure and impair our ability to meet and deter
threats.”
Obama made a speech to the VFW meeting on Monday, July 23, and was
generally well received as he made a similar call to Romney’s on
sequestration and urged Republican legislators to stop “playing
politics” with the U.S. military budget.
