Thursday, September 13, 2012

Mitt Romney's channels his inner Kanye West

Who could ever forget -- even if we tried hard -- the MTV VMA Kanye West moment. Mr. West, unhappy with Taylor Swift beating out Beyonce, decided to saunter up the aisle, climb the steps and snatch the mic from a very frightened Taylor Swift. Mr West had an announcement that couldn't wait and thus:

West told the stunned star: 'Yo Taylor. I'm really happy for you, I'm going to let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.'


In similar fashion, Willard Mitt Romney, while our country, Embassies and diplomats were in the throes of a major crisis (life and death), decided -- Ala Kanye -- he needed to grab a mic and diss President Obama. Yes, Willard wanted to bless the mic before the tragic events were over and before any hard-core facts were established:

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney’s reaction to the U.S. diplomatic murders is a fresh reminder why some senior GOP officials are worried over how he’ll fare in next month’s foreign policy debate.

Romney has just learned the hard way that dabbling in what Henry Kissinger termed the forbidden fruit of foreign policy is a lot like gambling — the odds generally favor the house.

Unless there’s a clear foreign policy debacle, like the failure of Jimmy Carter’s daring 1980 mission to rescue American diplomats held by Iran, incumbents running for reelection generally have the edge when it comes to foreign affairs.

Time and again, Americans tend to rally around their President when policy moves beyond America’s shores.

That’s why Romney’s response to anti-American rioting in Cairo and the death of four U.S. diplomats in Libya is a risky, double-edged sword.

It gave Romney an opening to launch a new weak-sister broadside at Obama’s foreign policy. But it also left him open to charges he's playing politics with national security.

In his zeal to capitalize on the Cairo demonstrations, Romney overreached, then got overtaken by tragic events in Benghazi, Libya. That forced him, in effect, to double down with a Wednesday press conference where he looked ill at ease, defensive, opportunistic and — even some of his most ardent GOP boosters privately conceded — unpresidential.

“He wasn’t comfortable with the subject matter and it showed,” an unaligned GOP national strategist said.

“Trying to make political points on a dead diplomat is tactless enough,” a second GOP operative added. “But the ham-handed press conference confounded the cringe factor.”

Romney's case wasn't helped by the combative, petulant TV interviews given by his foreign policy adviser Rich Williamson, never known for his diplomatic touch.

By contrast — and design — Obama’s Rose Garden remarks were subdued, restrained, and at least not overtly political in tone. source

One major difference in the character -- or lack thereof -- of Kanye and Romney: Kanye apologized for his brutish behavior; on the contrast, Romney doubled down (once again) on stupid.

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