Romney's blunders
JAMAL KANJ
Thursday, September 27, 2012
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=338527
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney may have been
to Harvard University, but his recurring gaffes suggest he is not ready to be
commander-in-chief of the world's biggest superpower.
It has been an eventful summer of blunders for Romney and
company.
Two months before his July public stumbles in England and
Palestine, and speaking before a private $50,000 fundraiser in Boca Raton,
Florida, Romney declared that 47 per cent of the American electorate were
irrelevant.
At the fundraiser, he labelled almost half of Americans as
non-tax payers with victim mentality, elaborating that it was not his job
"to worry about those people".
That is despite his mother admitting his father was on
government welfare as a child.
Romney's insincerity was further evident when he asked his
running mate to furnish the campaign with 10 years of income tax history, while
he refused to release more than two years.
In the documents made public, Romney paid less than 15pc
income tax, while the average for Americans is typically more than 30pc.
After disregarding 47pc of Americans, Romney declared that
Palestinian-Israeli peace is "almost unthinkable to accomplish".
It isn't a coincidence that this outlook is shared by those
on the extreme right of Israeli politics such as Foreign Minister Avigador
Lieberman, who proclaimed in December 2010 that peace with the Palestinians
"is impossible".
Trying to sound convincing, Romney absurdly equated the
Palestine conflict with other long standing, unresolved disputes between Taiwan
and China and North and South Korea.
Although all go back several years, it is stupid to suggest
the situation in Palestine - an entity under foreign military subjugation -
shares any similarities with [sovereign] Pyongyang or Taipei.
By embracing the right wing Israeli viewpoint,
neo-conservative presidential advisers have always advocated American and
international disengagement - allowing Israel to impose its conditions while
ignoring international law by building illegal Jewish-only settlements on
occupied land.
Almost a year ago at a Republican debate, Romney pledged
that before making important decisions he would call his "friend Bibi
Netanyahu" to ask him: "Would it help if I said this? What would you
like me to do?"
Romney supposedly met Netanyahu when they worked at Bain
Consulting Group in the 1970s.
In the same debate, Romney fondly said that Netanyahu was
"not just a friend, he's an old friend". "We can almost speak in
shorthand."
However, his "old friend" Bibi is not so sure.
Responding to a Vanity Fair magazine's question this summer, Netanyahu said:
"I don't think we had any particular connections, I knew him and he knew
me, I suppose."
Besides lying about his friendship with Netanyahu, it was
remarkable that a US presidential hopeful would publicly commit to let the
leader of a foreign country decide US foreign policy.
At every corner Republican pundits come to Romney's defence
and say the Harvard-educated nominee's statements are "not
articulate", "not elegant" or "gaffes".
Parroting his advisers' remarks is Romney's main
predicament. He lacks ingenuity and, like George W Bush, would let his advisers
run the White House.
Such traits are not those of a national leader, but of a man
who poses a dangerous threat to America and world peace.
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