Mitt and George: Two Innocents Abroad

Rereading Teddy White’s “The Making of the President—1968” about George Romney’s downfall I came across this line: “No one wanted an innocent for President.” Now his son too is coming across with disconcerting regularity—his comments in July denigrating Palestinian culture, now the absurd attack on Obama over Libya – as a naïf abroad, and a somewhat nasty one.

Setting aside the crassness and stupidity of Romney’s remarks, his substance is way off as well. As any expert in the region will tell you, every American president now has to walk a very careful line between supporting democracy in the Arab world and showing caution about whose hands it falls into. Right now in all these countries, Egypt, Syria and Libya, the strongest anti-regime advocates are either Islamist or military, and no one especially wants either side, military or Muslim, to dominate. Just consider the constitutional stalemate in Egypt for starters.

Mitt and George: two incredibly presidential-looking guys who may not have been cut out to be president. It seems that more and more, foreign policy could make the difference in this election. Be interesting to see the polling after this incident.