Romney Overseas - Final

The Washington Post July 31, 2012 article said: The assessments of the trip (Romney’s weeklong visit to London, Israel and Poland) ranged from scathing to resigned among the Republican professional political class.

One senior Republican strategist granted anonymity to speak candidly said “I find this entire trip borderline lunacy. “Why on earth is he seeking to improve his foreign policy credentials when there will not be a single vote cast on that subject?” Ed Rogers, a longtime Republican operative, was more measured but acknowledged that the trip was something short of an unqualified success by saying “Romney abroad is the same as Romney at home. His performance is uneven at times but overall pretty good.” Another veteran Republican political consultant reached for a golf metaphor when asked to explain Romney’s performance in Europe — and whether it will hurt his campaign domestically. “He’s like the guy who is a competent-but-not-gifted athlete who learns to play golf. He works really hard at it and most of the time he’s perfectly competent, if not stellar. But once each round he is going to shank one and break a window on a house lining the golf course.” These aren’t the sort of impressions Romney wanted to create when he left for Europe.

The goal of the trip seemed obvious — a chance for Romney to prove to doubters that he was more than up to serving as the face of America on the world stage. Those close to the Romney campaign reject even the idea that the foreign trip was a net negative for them. Yes, the candidate made a few errors, they acknowledge, but they were minor when compared to the overall message — praise from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an endorsement from Poland’s Lech Walesa — that the average American voter received from Romney’s travels over the last week. As evidence, they point to a series of front pages in swing states like the Palm Beach Post, the Dayton Daily News and the Las Vegas Review Journal — all of which played the Israel visit very favorably.

While no one in the political orbits of either Romney or President Obama thinks that this election will be decided by foreign policy, there is a sense that a challenger with little experience in that area has to show that he can meet a minimum level of credibility abroad. Call it the commander-in-chief test, which according to the latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll Romney had yet to pass; in that survey 45% of respondents said Obama would make the better commander in chief, while just 35% said Romney would be superior on that front. It’s hard to imagine that Romney did himself any favors in answering lingering questions about his foreign policy acumen during this trip. On the other hand there is an argument to be made that nothing — literally, nothing — other than the economy at home matters to undecided voters. And that goes double for foreign policy which is a bottom-of-mind issue for most voters. In a late May Washington Post-ABC News poll, 1% of people said that foreign policy was the most important issue of the 2012 campaign. Yes, only One!

The problem for Romney coming off of this trip is (many of his staunchest defenders within the party seem to have fallen back on) “he’s not great but he doesn’t need to be great”. This argument may wind up working — no president since World War II has been reelected with anything close to the 8+ percent unemployment rate Obama is likely to face — it’s not one that will inspire huge amounts of confidence in the GOP as summer turns to fall.

In Romney’s July 28 interview with ABC when asked if he’d want a do-over in London Romney said “I tend to tell people what I actually believe and the comments that were made in the media is something which I felt was an honest reflection of what was being concerned or what was concerning folks.” He also said that the debates will be about 2 different paths or plans.

If you read my preceding blogs of his trip I think anyone who thinks Romney’s trip was even somewhat successful is nuts but unfortunately they do influence Americans. I also believe that we are in for a major breakdown in world politics if Romney is elected but considering only 1% of Americans have the sense to be concerned with this issue, I think the Washington Post is right in thinking unemployment may be the deciding factor. A factor that Republicans have controlled with their failure to approve the Jobs Act and proposal to take away tax credits to American businesses overseas.