Romney's Road Trip

[Geee]

American Spectator:

At some point, every presidential candidate is bound to take a trip abroad to advertise his foreign policy credentials. Because most candidates don't want to be accused of criticizing his opponent's foreign policy abroad, the trips are usually little more than carefully staged photo ops.

Four years ago, during his "foreign policy" trip, Barack Obama donned a skullcap and pushed a written prayer into a nook in the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. He hasn't been back to Israel since, and his enmity toward our only Middle Eastern ally has been demonstrated so often, there is no room here to rehash the evidence.

Mitt Romney's trip this week was supposed to follow the normal script. Off to London first for the opening of the Olympics, then to Israel and last to Poland, the trip was planned to hit the headlines and Obama's vulnerabilities. The U.K. is a strong ally, Israel is another (and of greater domestic political importance), and Poland is another that -- until Obama came along -- held a special regard for us. Poland practically worships Ronald Reagan for his role in winning the Cold War and embracing Poland's struggle against Soviet oppression. And many Polish-Americans -- who may comprise the swing vote in several states -- are worried about Obama's disregard of Poland's defense.

Britain, as one wag wrote a few days ago, is an easy date for American pols. All a guy has to do is say something nice about the Queen or Churchill, josh them about the lousy weather and say something warm and serious about the "special relationship." At that point, the Brits conclude that the American candidate is perhaps too unlettered or too much of a cowboy, but all in all a good chap. Then everyone smiles as the candidate climbs back on the aircraft to go to the next stop.

Unfortunately for Romney, his London trip was more reminiscent of Monday Night Football's "C'mon, man" segment. You know the one: part of the halftime show with a half dozen video clips of players, refs or coaches screwing up big plays to Chris Berman's cry of "c'mon, man." Some reporter asked Romney whether Britain was ready for the Olympics to start. Instead of saying, "everything looks smashing," Romney said, "You know, it's hard to know just how well it will turn out. There are a few things that were disconcerting. The stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials … that obviously is not something which is encouraging."

That peeved Brit PM David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson who both made snide responses and launched Romney into two days of damage control. Romney's unforced error is inexplicable. But it will be forgotten quickly after Romney's superb speech yesterday in Jerusalem.

Romney arrived in Israel about two weeks after Obama's National Security Advisor Tom Donilon reportedly went there to advise Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu privately about America's contingency plans for Iran if the economic sanctions didn't succeed in stopping Iran's nuclear weapons program. (The Israeli government denied that report.)

The Israelis had no reason to believe anything Donilon told them. Obama has done and continues to do everything in his power to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran. Though Obama has given the appearance of going along with congressionally authored economic sanctions against Iran, he has defanged the Iran sanctions, granting most of Iran's trading partners in Europe and the Far East exemptions from them. When the Iranians revolted against the Tehran regime in 2009, Obama did nothing to help them. He will never use military power to prevent Iran's achieving its nuclear weapons ambitions, and everyone -- especially the Israelis -- knows that.

In that context, Romney has given two excellent foreign policy speeches. The first, before the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention on July 24, and then in Jerusalem yesterday.