In the back and forth exchange between the two men vying for the presidency in November, Obama has been much more subtle, preferring sly jabs to the more outward Romney attacks. This is typical of any presidential election, where the incumbent tries to act presidential while the challenger needs to rile everyone up. But last week Obama made a sharp comment about Romney’s dialog over the way that Obama has been dealing with other nations, that went along the lines of “well, go start a war then.”
Teddy would not be happy with Mitt
This is significant because Romney has revealed himself time and time again to lack any sort of foreign policy experience, but worse — he lacks any sort of interpersonal ability to act diplomatically. Romney is the sort of guy who is used to always being on top, it’s what money provides him. He equates this feeling with how he thinks America should act in the world. His approach of never apologizing for America, of viewing negotiations as weakness, and of insulting entire ethnic groups to raise money, do not make for a good working relationship with other countries who were so tired of Bush that they would vote for Obama to be the president of the world.
Obama can’t wait for the debates, where he can get into the intricacies of the ways that countries work together, while Romney huffs about needing more money for defense and standing up to other nations. It will be the same old tired debate that Republicans have been pushing for generations and Romney will look like nothing more than a Bush with 60% less gray hair.
Obama has been cautious of the way that the campaign trail affects world events, and especially the relationship with China. Romney, who is himself responsible for the growth of China’s manufacturing by sending American jobs over there, has been on the attack that the US isn’t doing enough to stop China from manipulating its currency. Romney would come out and criticize them (saying that he “would” means that he “is” but that he can’t be held “responsible” if something goes sour).
Any rational person would look at what the Federal Reserve does on a daily basis and argue that every single nation manipulates their currency to their advantage. Currencies shift up and down like the tides. Going after China over its currency is really the only way that Romney can criticize Obama, without doing any emotional damage. Which is why the individual attacks don’t matter.
What matters is the overall tone of Romney’s campaign and the way that he would always wield American military might over diplomatic reasoning, or, at the very least, speak loudly while swinging a big stick. Iran, Russia, China, all of them are in the Republicans’ sites as if they owned the world and they were criminals that needed to be put to death. The reality is, of course, a world where we must all live together whether we like it or not. No one wants more war, least of all an untested Romney, but in order to make that less likely, he has to cut off his own bravado.
