Empire In His Brain

[bigtree]

from the Des Moines Register: http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/11/14/caucus-week-nov-14-20-notes-from-the-campaigns/

At a Davenport stop, Romney recited four lines of a century-old poem by Sam Walter Foss . . .

“Bring me men to match my mountains/Bring me men to match my plains/Men with empires in their purpose/And new eras in their brains.”

Romney said the lines captured the spirit that needs renewing in the country. “That’s what America has come from – people who have empires in their purpose and new eras in their brains.”
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from Paul Abrams at HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/republican-debate-mitt-romney_b_1091215.html

The biggest joke in the Republican 'debate' on foreign policy is that tough-guy Mitt Romney will prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. The mullahs must be cowering.

Challenged about his "lifetime membership" in the NRA, Romney claimed that he occasionally hunted varmints (to hunt anything else, he would need a license -- he never had one!) . . .

. . .just how is Romney going to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb? Step up sanctions? President Obama has been more successful in getting Russia and China to support sanctions than the neocons with whom Romney is desperately trying to identify himself ever were. And, Obama is psychologically secure enough to have been incredibly tough when required (e.g., getting bin Laden, development of stuxnet virus) without pounding his chest, a much more effective way to attract allies and support.

The biggest risk of Romney as president is that, like George W Bush, he would try to prove "his" toughness by launching a war.
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from Robert Dreyfuss at the Nation: http://www.thenation.com/blog/164577/gop-candidates-confused-afghanistan

Mitt Romney tried to slam Obama for his decision to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, but in the end Romney simply quibbled over a few months. “The commander in chief, perhaps looking at the calendar of the election, decided to bring home in September <2012>, instead, in the middle of the fighting season. Our commanders said that puts our troops at risk, at danger, ‘Please don't pull 'em out there,’ they said. But he said, ‘No, I'm gonna get 'em out early.’ I think that was a mistake. Our surge troops should have been withdrawn by December of next year, not by September. And the timetable, by the end of 2014, is the right timetable for us to be completely withdrawn from Afghanistan, other than a small footprint of support forces.” In other words, Romney is okay with the 2014 deadline, and he’s just fussing over a pullout in September instead of December.

Romney did, however, insist that he won’t negotiate. “We don't negotiate with terrorists. I do not negotiate with the Taliban.” Since a large part of the rationale for the 2014 timetable is to strike a deal for a political settlement before that, obviously involving the Taliban and their backers in Pakistan, Romney might have to rethink that.
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from Tommy Christopher at Mediaite:http://www.mediaite.com/tv/president-obama-brushes-off-gop-debate-criticism-of-his-iran-nukes-policy/

At Saturday night’s Republican presidential debate on national security and foreign policy, co-frontrunner Mitt Romney and others harshly criticized President Obama‘s efforts to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, based on a recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report. At a press conference in Hawaii Sunday evening, President Obama brushed off the “shocking” criticism, and saying that anyone who oversimplifies the issue “is either politicking, or doesn’t know what they’re talking about . . .”

CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell asked the President, Sunday night, about Mott Romney’s criticism specifically, beginning, “the Republicans did have a debate on CBS last night. A lot of it was about foreign policy, and they were very critical of your record…”

“That’s shocking,” the President interjected, amid laughs from reporters.

“So if I could get you to respond to something that Mitt Romney said,” O’Donnell continued. “He said your biggest foreign policy failure is Iran. He said that if you are reelected Iran will have a nuclear weapon. Is Mitt Romney wrong?”

The President began by saying, “I am going to make a practice of not commenting on whatever is said in Republican debates until they’ve got an actual nominee,” before explaining the importance of building international opposition to a nuclear Iran. “you take a look at what we’ve been able to accomplish in mobilizing the world community against Iran over the last three years,” the President said, “and it shows steady, determined, firm progress in isolating the Iranian regime, and sending a clear message that the world believes it would be dangerous for them to have a nuclear weapon.”
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more Romney debate nonsense from Iwatchnews: http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/11/14/7387/fact-check-foreign-policy-themed-gop-debate-full-falsehoods/?utm_source=iwatchnews&utm_medium=site-features&utm_campaign=most-active


Romney threatened to haul China before the World Trade Organization to address currency manipulation. But as Huntsman suggested, the WTO isn’t a good forum for that.

Romney: "They’re a currency manipulator. And on that basis, we also go before the WT — WTO — and bring an action against them as a currency manipulator. … We can’t just sit back and let China run all over us."

Huntsman: "… First of all, I don’t think, Mitt, you can take China to the WTO on currency-related issues."

Huntsman — a former U.S. ambassador to China — is correct. WTO rules don’t cover currency manipulation, according to a 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service:

CRS, Jan. 28, 2011: The WTO has rules against subsidies, but these are very narrow and specific and do not seem to encompass currency manipulation.

To be sure, the CRS report said it is “debatable” whether WTO rules against unfair trade subsidies can be interpreted to cover a deliberately undervalued currency. But it added: “To date the WTO has done nothing to suggest that trade issues linked to currency manipulation are within its zone of responsibility.” The CRS said that a president might seek to amend WTO rules so that they clearly cover currency manipulation, but that is “not easy.”

Overall, we judge that there’s less force behind Romney’s WTO threat than he would have viewers believe.


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[SpiralHawk]

1. Romney romaticizes the trail of broken treaties (R)

The US government has entered into about 380 legally binding treaties with various native nations -- while stealing an 'empire' in their narrow mammon-driven purposes -- and BROKEN OR VIOLATED every single one.

How very Republicon of Teh Mitty (R) to celebrate theft and betrayal. He's definitely got Republicon Family Scuzzbucket Values...