You knew he wasn’t going anywhere, milking the last few days of his term for what it’s worth.
Archive for insult
After being subjected to this video of Romney’s foreign policy speech at the Virginia Military Institute, including his newest major reversal on foreign aid, let’s respond with this quote:
“We’re not going to be lectured by someone who has been an unmitigated disaster on foreign policy every time he’s dipped his toe in the foreign policy waters,” said Obama campaign traveling spokeswoman Jen Psaki. “Just as a refresher, this is the same guy who, when he went overseas on his trip, the only person who has offended Europe more is probably Chevy Chase.”
Team Obama takes it from there:
Mitt Romney has insulted our closest allies, rushed to judgement without facts while Americans were under attack, called Russia—not al Qaeda, our greatest threat, called the Iraq withdrawal “tragic”, and didn’t even mention Afghanistan in his convention speech.
Voiceover:
“Reckless, amateurish—that’s what news media and fellow Republicans called Mitt Romney’s gaffe-filled July tour of England, Israel and Poland. When our U.S. diplomats were attacked in Libya. The New York Times said Romney’s knee-jerk response ‘showed an extraordinary lack of presidential character.’ And even Republican experts said Romney’s remarks were ‘the worst possible reaction to what happened.’ If this is how he handles the world now just think what Mitt Romney might do as president.”
Indeed, let’s not forget what Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister said about Romney: “What I see is ignorance of what is reality.”
Nor should we forget Mitt Romney’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad British gaffe-athon.
Nor that a Jewish group said, hey Mitt Romney, 17,000 of us want you to apologize to the Palestinians for your “racist and ignorant” comments as Palestinians protested Romney statements as “racist”.
And this: Russia is “without question, our No. 1 geopolitical foe.”
Romney is not qualified to be Commander In Chief.
First we had Mitt Romney’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad British gaffe-athon.
Then a Jewish group said, hey Mitt Romney, 17,000 of us want you to apologize to the Palestinians for your “racist and ignorant” comments as Palestinians protested Romney statements as “racist”.
And let’s not forget this old chestnut: Russia is “without question, our No. 1 geopolitical foe.”
So there was that.
It’s a new day, and with each new day, Willard M. Romney brings us a new hot mess. Today’s involves his latest: managing to offend Spain. He’s running out of countries to insult, but never you mind, he’ll keep at it until he angers the entire world!
Romney is planning a big important foreign policy speech Monday at the Virginia Military Institute. Let’s see if he addresses any of his many, many worldwide embarrassments, the most recent at the presidential debate during which he claimed Spain was a perfect example of government spending gone wild.
How endearing.
That left Spaniards confused, and threatened to reinforce Romney’s perceived handicap in international affairs [...] Spain’s level of government spending is actually low by European standards, and significantly less than Germany and Scandinavian countries with far healthier economic prospects. Spain’s woes were chiefly caused by the collapse of a property bubble that had fueled more than a decade of booming economic growth.
Spanish reaction to Romney was swift.
“What I see is ignorance of what is reality, but especially of the potential of the Spanish economy,” said Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.
Maria Dolores Cospedal, leader of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party, noted that “Spain is not on fire from all sides like some on the outside have suggested.” Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo called it “very unfortunate that other countries should be put up as examples” when the facts are skewed. [...]
By singling out Spain, Romney ruffled feathers in a country he will probably need to call on for assistance if he becomes president. Spain has almost 1,500 troops in Afghanistan. It contributed fighter jets, refueling planes and naval vessels to the U.S.-led NATO mission that ousted Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi from power.
Ouch.
Sure, Mitt can confidently bounce onto a debate stage full of himself, his reinvention, and his lies, but raising international eyebrows– again– exposes him for the inferior, ignorant candidate that he is. Let him try to run from, laugh off, or Etch A Sketch that.
H/t: Bernie Andreu
My Twitter buddy Josh Rogin does it again. You’ve seen him on The Rachel Maddow Show, and you should read him at ForeignPolicy.com, because he’s prolific and chock full o’ good reporting.
His latest piece shines another spotlight on another international Willard Romney blunder; as if his Big Overseas Trip only a short time ago wasn’t enough. Yes, he’s done it again, this time insulting the Japanese.
Someone, anyone, please explain to me why the GOP is spending millions to get this guy into the White House, because he’s already destroying U.S. credibility overseas without setting a foot inside the Oval Office:
Mitt Romney’s comments Thursday criticizing Japan have U.S.-Japan alliance watchers on two continents worrying that the ultra-sensitive Japanese might not appreciate being the cautionary tale in Romney’s campaign stump speeches and that a President Romney might not be a good steward of the decades-long relationship.
“We are not Japan,” the presumptive Republican nominee told donors at a $2,500-a-plate fundraiser Thursday. “We are not going to be a nation that suffers in decline and distress for a decade or a century. We’re on the cusp of a very different economic future than the one people have seen over the past three years.”
Japan experts on both sides of the Pacific told The Cable that Romney’s offhand assertion that Japan has been in decline for “a century” isn’t a fair characterization of a nation that emerged from the ashes of World War II to build the world’s second- (now third-) largest economy on a small island with few natural resources.
Moreover, they worry that Romney is needlessly insulting the face-conscious Japanese and giving them the impression that is he wins in November, his administration won’t appreciate the importance of America’s top alliance in the East at a time when the United States is attempting a diplomatic and military “pivot” to Asia.
Oh it gets worse. Link over for more cringe-worthy details.
@ZekeJMiller tweeted: “Worth noting, Romney didn’t visit a Kibbutz on his [embarrassing] Israel trip.”
Zeke has a post up at BuzzFeed that reminds us that Mitt loves to boast that he and Israel are BFF, and President Obama is a big poo-poo head who hasn’t visited Israel in the past few years and so he must be a fair weather BFF.
However, at a Chicago (wait, he actually visited evil Chicago?) fundraiser, he “took a shot at the Israeli Kibbutz (Hebrew for “communal settlement”) movement“:
“It’s individuals and their entrepreneurship which have driven America,” Romney said. “What America is not a collective where we all work in a Kibbutz or we all in some little entity, instead it’s individuals pursuing their dreams and building successful enterprises which employ others and they become inspired as they see what has happened in the place they work and go off and start their own enterprises.”
According to the Jewish Virtual Library about 2.5 percent of Israelis live on 250 different Kibbutz, which were begun before the establishment of the state of Israel.
Willard missed another chance to avoid insulting Israel by that much!
Remember during Willard. M. Romney’s recent trip, the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad British gaffe-athon, he made some rather unfortunate remarks about “cultural differences” that infuriated the Palestinians, insulted Jews, and… well, let’s just say he stepped in some deep political poop.
Mitt sure is good at diplomacy, isn’t he? And don’t even start me on “Romney Persona Non Grata in Italy for Bain’s Deal Skirting Taxes.“
Now The Hill is reporting that a Jewish group is demanding an apology for the comments he made in Israel which they called ” inaccurate and misleading, racist and ignorant”:
A liberal Jewish organization is set to deliver 17,000 signatures to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s headquarters Monday afternoon urging him to apologize for remarks many have deemed insulting to the Palestinians.
Jewish Voice for Peace has called Romney’s comments at a Jerusalem fundraiser last Monday “racist and ignorant.” Romney says he did not mean to denigrate Palestinians when he credited “the power of at least culture” and the “hand of providence” for Israel’s superior economy.
The petition reads, in part:
“Israel’s Occupation of Palestinian land makes it impossible for the Palestinian economy to succeed, not ‘cultural differences’… Your comments were not a reflection of the values Jews, Americans, and our allies hold dear. We call on you to apologize to the Palestinian people for your willful lack of understanding of the facts on the ground and the racist assumptions behind them.”
There’s your foreign policy expert, the perfect world leader.
Yes, this is exactly who we want representing our country, isn’t it? And by “we” I mean mentally deficient, Obamaphobic Republicans.
Who didn’t see this coming? Man, he’s just stepping in it all over the place, good thing he’ll never be POTUS.
Romney, speaking to a group that included Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, said higher personal wealth among citizens in Israel was an indication that the country was accomplishing something its neighbors were not.
“As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality,” Romney said.
(snip)
“He says if you can learn anything from the economic history of the world, it’s this: culture makes all the difference. Culture makes all the difference. And 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,” Romney said.
That comment drew a sharp reaction from Sa’eb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator and a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“This man, before he came here, he should have got some education about Israelis, Palestinians, and the region,” Erekat said. “The Romney statements on Jerusalem and the racist statements about the Israeli culture being superior to the Palestinian culture reflect someone who needs to be educated, who needs knowledge. His statements are serving those extremist in the region now, and will serve extremists unfortunately.”
Erekat said Romney ignored the reality that Israeli occupation was main reason Palestinian areas were suffering economically.
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