"Severely Conservative" Mitt Romney: It's a Major Indictment of Trump's Character That European Countries Like Sweden Do Not Approve of His Foreign Policy Like They Approved of Obama's

So let's implement Obama's foreign policy then, Mr. Severely Conservative?

Romney's aides wrote -- for the Washington Post, not for a more conservative outlet (and by the way, he's giving a big interview to CNN today, with the severely conservative Twitter Impressario Jake The Snake Tapper) -- this:

The world is also watching. America has long been looked to for leadership. Our economic and military strength was part of that, of course, but our enduring commitment to principled conduct in foreign relations, and to the rights of all people to freedom and equal justice, was even more esteemed. Trumps words and actions have caused dismay around the world. In a 2016 Pew Research Center poll, 84 percent of people in Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Sweden believed the American president would "do the right thing in world affairs." One year later, that number had fallen to 16 percent.

Philip Klein comments:

While there are plenty of angles from which to criticize Trump's foreign policy, one of the laziest and obnoxious is to say that his conduct is bad because he is less popular than Barack Obama among the public in socialist countries that do not share American values. The public in those countries also supported the Iran deal among other disastrous Obama era policies, so of course reversing them is going to change opinion.

It's incredible that Romney would cite the authority of Sweden of all places, where anti-Semitism is rampant and Jews are attacked by Molotov cocktails. Let's check out what their protesters had to say about Trump's foreign policy in December 2017 ( Per the New York Times):

Last Friday, 200 people protested in Malmo against President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The protesters called for an intifada and promised "we will shoot the Jews." A day later, during a demonstration in Stockholm, a speaker called Jews "apes and pigs." There were promises of martyrdom.

I'm not surprised that such a public would be happier with the Obama administration, which had a hostile attitude toward Israel and allowed the world to gang up against the Jewish state, then they have been with the pro-Israel Trump administration. But it's insulting for Romney to appeal to the moral authority of the Swedes in criticizing the American president.

Citing such international polls in an effort to position himself as "woke Romney" ahead of his swearing in is weak and pathetic. It's right out of John Kerry's infamous 2004 " global test" remark. And it should not be treated as serious criticism.

This is as ignorant as it gets -- Romney should know that this question is only a proxy for the question "What do you think of Republican Presidents?"

He either does know this, and chose to suppress it to make an absurd point, or else is an ignorant fool.

Here's Pew summarizing the world's opinions on whether Bush would "do the right thing:"

In 2008, the Pew Global Attitudes Project asked citizens of 24 countries whether they could count on Bush to do the right thing regarding foreign affairs. Majorities in only three (India, Nigeria, and Tanzania) said they had a lot or some confidence.

On the other side of the ledger, majorities in 19 of the 24 countries had little or no confidence in the American president. In the four Western European countries surveyed, majorities without much confidence ranged from 81% in Britain to 88% in Spain. In the Middle East, majorities rose as high as 89% in Turkey and Jordan. Since 2003, confidence in Bush has fallen in eight of the 14 foreign countries where trend data are available. In the remaining six countries confidence has remained relatively low.

But Bush was a man of character who pushed the sort of "severely conservative" foreign policy that Mitt Romney claims he himself supports.

How could it be that 81% of British respondents said they had little to no confidence that Bush would do the right thing in foreign policy? I thought this was all about character or something.

As it was Obama's "Lead from Behind" policy that Europeans approved of -- a policy that basically put Sarkozy and Merkel in charge of American foreign policy -- does Mr. Severely Conservative recommend returning to that foreign policy in order to make Europeans approve of American Republican presidents?

posted by Ace of Spades at 02:39 PM

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