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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

2012 Can Mitt Romney See Libya from His House?

Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 11:32 AM

The foreign policy problems keep piling up:

Mitt Romney got the capital of Libya wrong in his opportunistic statement this morning criticizing the President about his handling of the attacks against the US embassy in Cairo and the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Romney referred in his statement to the "embassies" and particularly to "our embassy at Benghazi, Libya." He made the mistake three times, so it wasn't just a slip of the lip.

Any first year international relations student knows that our diplomatic offices in the capital are "embassies," and our offices in cities that are not the capital are "consulates."

I'm sure Republican apologists will say that the average American doesn't know the difference between embassies and consulates, but this represents a bigger problem for Romney: His utter lack of preparation. To convince the American people that he knows what to do in times of crisis, Romney needs to be the guy with access to all the smartest guys in the room. He's not doing that right now.

And even Paul Ryan is distancing himself from the larger Romney campaign by making a statement that doesn't back up Romney's anti-Obama stance on Libya. If Romney keeps floundering around like this, I wouldn't be surprised to see Ryan do some Palin-like triangulating to try to separate himself ideologically from the ticket in order to preserve his political future.

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Romney also smirked a lot this morning.

http://www.americablog.com/2012/09/romne…

https://twitter.com/CharlesDharapak/stat…

Posted by seatackled on September 12, 2012 at 11:39 AM

So if Bush was (is) the Smirking Chimp, what animal does Willard resemble?

*refills coffee cup, pulls down Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia Volume 7: Reptiles*

Posted by rob!

on September 12, 2012 at 11:48 AM

This feels like that day in September 2008, when John McCain announced he was shutting down his campaign to fix the economy, revealing how totally unprepared he was to handle a crisis. He didn't actually shut it down, but that was the day his campaign died.

Posted by DOUG.

on September 12, 2012 at 11:57 AM

From the halls of Montezumaaaa . . .

Posted by care bear on September 12, 2012 at 12:06 PM

@3 That was possibly the worst, non-spontaneous campaign move in recent memory. I don't know how Mitt's team will top it, but I have a weird feeling they will somehow.

Posted by Sir Vic on September 12, 2012 at 12:06 PM

That Politico article on Ryan's response has already been updated to reflect anti-Obama statements he made later in the event.

Posted by Re. on September 12, 2012 at 12:07 PM

@2,

I vote for Monitor lizard.

And, I checked. Paul Ryan is Salacious Crumb.

Posted by keshmeshi on September 12, 2012 at 12:18 PM

@6
Too bad it doesn't include the fact that Ryan himself voted for the "sequester" (including the requirement for cutting defense spending) that he is now trying to blame on Obama.

Because Ryan refused to raise taxes on people like Romney, Obama has to find some way to trim defense spending.

Posted by fairly.unbalanced on September 12, 2012 at 12:24 PM

If all the guys in the room are the smartest guy in the room then is any guy the smartest guy in the room?

Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

on September 12, 2012 at 12:28 PM

Romney made a junior varsity mistake, I would let it go. What is more disturbing is some of the unimaginative retreads he has around that are dishing out Foreign Policy advice to him, like major idiot, Dan Senor, who was stating some very dangerous stuff while Romney was on his buffonery tour to UK, Israel and Poland.

Posted by ferret

on September 12, 2012 at 12:29 PM

@ 10, Romney is running, not for varsity, but the big time. JV mistakes absolutely are not allowable. (I'd take issue with it being characterized like that anyway, but that doesn't matter.)

You're absolutely right about his advisers, though. Romney is simply a foreign policy cypher, which means that he'll take any advice he hears because he has absolutely NO understanding of it. Just like Bush, he won't truly be in charge and it will be left to the most extreme elements with predictable tragic results.

Posted by Matt from Denver on September 12, 2012 at 12:35 PM

@4,
To the shores of... Benghazi?

I must admit, I'm an average American and I did not know the difference between embassies and consulates.
Then again, I'm not running to be Chief Executive of the rest of you average Americans either.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on September 12, 2012 at 12:36 PM

Poor Sideshow Mitt, surrounded by rakes...

http://twitpic.com/8qsn2r

Posted by smade on September 12, 2012 at 12:47 PM

On foreign policy, Romney is the least qualified presidential nominee of a major party, ever. (Or in, say, the last hundred years at least.)

Even candidates who had no particular background in foreign policy before running (Carter, Obama, JFK, even George W on rare occasions) could speak credibly about it without making fools of themselves. Nothing Mitt says about this ever makes sense, or shows any leadership skills, or does anything but erode confidence that he's up to even the basics of the job.

Posted by Cascadian on September 12, 2012 at 12:59 PM

Republicans don't come any more rat-like than Paul Ryan. And why does a rat desert a ship?

Posted by johnjjeeves on September 12, 2012 at 1:03 PM

Not as bad as Obama calling Navy Corpsman a 'Corpse-man'.

Posted by Gay Dude for Romney

on September 12, 2012 at 1:09 PM

@15

To get a better marathon time?

Posted by seatackled on September 12, 2012 at 1:10 PM

@16 Oh GAWD, yeah, those two things are comparable. Yeah. Right. UNSUBSCRIBE.

Posted by pfffter on September 12, 2012 at 1:12 PM

@18 - Remember that time Gerald Ford tripped and fell? WORST PRESIDENT EVER. WORSE THAN HITLER.

Posted by MacCrocodile

on September 12, 2012 at 1:29 PM

Forget "distancing himself ideologically," Paul Ryan so firmly believes that he and his man Romney are gonna win the White House that-- he isn't dropping out of his run for Congress.

If that ain't confidence, I don't know what is.

Posted by bobbyjoe on September 12, 2012 at 1:30 PM

@16 THAT'S your justification/apology/spin???

LMAOROTFL!

That is the most pathetic attempt at spin I've read. Granted, I don't troll Drudge, so I'm sure I've missed out on some doozies. Seriously, don't you think it would help your cause by presenting conservatives as something else besides delusional idiots?

Posted by Some Old Nobodaddy Logged In on September 12, 2012 at 1:40 PM

@7 Brilliant! Until you pointed that out, I never would have guessed.

@16 You can do better. That was weak, even by your standards.

Posted by Hernandez

on September 12, 2012 at 1:45 PM

Oh. Seattleblues. No matter how many sock puppets you create, your particular brand of lunatic shut-in "je ne sais quoi" is unmistakable. We look forward to more reports from your "house" in Italy. Or is it Tripoli, now?

Posted by tkc on September 12, 2012 at 1:45 PM

@7: Ah yes, the Kowakian Monkey-Lizard.

Posted by venomlash on September 12, 2012 at 2:05 PM

Romney looks like a baboon.

http://crikeymatemosaic.wordpress.com/20…

Posted by sarah70 on September 12, 2012 at 2:38 PM

@3,

That's what I thought too. Wouldn't be surprised if this was the dagger that killed his campaign. He acted like a vulture instead of a presidential candidate.

Posted by Patricia Kayden on September 13, 2012 at 3:36 AM