Greg Sargent/How should Obama handle Romney’s foreign policy Etch-A-Sketching?

[DonViejo]

How should Obama handle Romney’s foreign policy Etch-A-Sketching?

By Greg Sargent

If there’s one thing that the first debate proved, it’s that Mitt Romney has an undeniable talent for obscuring and evading his own true positions. That will undoubtedly be on display again tonight, only this time, it will be in the realm of foreign policy. How should Obama combat this?

Mike Tomasky warns us about the avalance of deception we’re going to see from Romney, and counsels Obama on how to fight back:

If Romney is half as successful at lying about his his previous positions tonight as he was Oct. 3, and if Obama doesn’t challenge him aggressively, then Mittens will come out of tonight with some new momentum.

Romney will say things that are completely incompatible with each other. He’ll talk about encouraging moderate Arabs to step forward and then about no daylight with Israel. If the issue is Palestine, those two goals point in totally opposite directions and can’t be pursued at the same time. But most people don’t know that, and he may get away with it. A straightforward task for Obama tonight, but a big one and possibly a tricky one, is to point out these contradictions.

Yes, but keep in mind that Romney is coming from a position of greater weakness than during the first debate, which was all about the economy. Obama’s disapproval on the economy is high; Romney could make the case, thanks to his business background, that he had actual experience when it came to the central topic of the evening. Tonight, Romney won’t be able to make that argument.

What’s more, Obama has a far more straightforward argument to make tonight. That argument is as follows: I got Bin Laden, and I’m ending Bush's wars — what do you bring to the table? Obama’s argument on the economy has always been a tough and nuanced one to make. The flip side of this is that Romney’s argument on the economy is far easier to make than his argument about foreign policy has proven to be.

more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/how-should-obama-handle-romneys-foreign-policy-etch-a-sketching/2012/10/22/b4d86b50-1c7a-11e2-9cd5-b55c38388962_blog.html

[Buddaman]

1. Mitt has no foreign policy.........None! Notta!