Casually declaring Jerusalem as Israel's capital is the diplomatic equivalent of letting a bull run free in a china shop. But that pales in comparison to Romney's other gaffe. That one is throwing gas on a fire.
One thing is certain in the Middle East. Nothing is certain. To successfully navigate that mine field you need someone who is stable, sane, sober, steady, and serious. If I am in a room where everyone is packing heat, I want to be dealing with professionals. I don't want some jumpy kid or borderline nut job to get itchy and set off a shootout. I don't want someone who isn't paying attention, either. They might knock something over and start a firefight by accident.
Now I am not going to say Obama's policies in the region have exactly wowed me. I think it was shameful how his administration let the Israelis off the hook after they attacked a civilian vessel and killed people, including an American citizen. I also don't like the fact they have been so passive on the issue of settlements.
However there is one thing you can say without question about Obama.
This is really important.
This is something you can't say about Clinton or Dubya.
This is something that needs to be repeated and amplified.
Barack Obama is the first president in 20 years
to prevent a foreign terrorist attack on American soil.
Now that I've mentioned it, that seems painfully obvious. But the fact is, no one is pointing this out. If Obama pointed it out, you know the FOX machine would start claiming he was "spiking the ball", doing a "victory dance in the end zone", "counting his chickens," or some other equally disdainful characterization of a significant achievement.
I'm sure that Obama would be the first to admit he did not do that by himself, either. But the fact such a dramatic claim can be made without any equivocation is testimony to the quality of the people working for him, as well as the practices and policies put in place by him. That didn't happen by accident. It didn't happen by luck. It didn't happen because Obama was busy apologizing to terrorists. It sure as hell didn't happen for lack of trying.
We haven't been attacked during this administration because a lot of hard work by a lot of serious people was never jeopardized by someone in charge being so careless that he would blithely kick a hornet's nest and undo all that hard work. For example, this administration has NEVER signaled publicly that they would be OK with Israel attacking Iran. Who knows if they are or aren't. It's unclear. That's the point. You need to keep things uncertain so no one feels completely safe throwing the first punch. You sure as hell don't want them feeling TRAPPED into doing it, either.
Let's go back to that room where everyone is packing heat for a moment and change one detail. Everyone armored up. Now they are packing nuclear heat. What kind of meathead picks a fight where even Dubya wouldn't go? Who could be dumb enough to go out of their way and make Iran even more paranoid by suggesting they would support a pre-emptive unilateral Israeli attack on Iran? I think we all know the answer to both questions. It rhymes with "Twit."