Haaretz have penned an open letter to Mitt Romney, he should take the time to read it.
I hope you enjoyed your visit to Israel. It must have been fun playing the statesman in meetings with Israeli leaders and catching up with your old ‘friend’ Bibi and your new friend, Sheldon. I’m sure you told them everything they wanted to hear. How you would have Israel’s back as president, and would never ‘throw it under the bus’ as you have accused President Obama of doing.
Snip...
Perhaps if you had remained true to your former liberal self, you might have stood a chance with American Jews, but then, of course, you would have never become the Republican candidate for president. I’m afraid you can’t have it both ways. While you can woo the Republican base with your newfound, staunch conservatism, you’ll alienate American Jews in the process. Trying to pander to their pro-Israel sentiments won’t help you very much.
Forgive me if you know all this. I thought that your visit to Israel was, at least in part, an effort to gain American Jewish support. Perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe it was just a fundraising trip, or maybe it wasn’t about American Jews at all. I’m sure it went down very well with evangelical Christians.
Juan Cole yesterday in The Guardian...
Top Ten Most Distasteful things about Romney Trip to Israel
5. It is distasteful that Romney is clearly holding the event in some large part to please casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who first bankrolled Newt Gingrich and now is talking about giving $100 million to elect Romney. Adelson is a huge supporter of far rightwing Likud Party Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and published a free newspaper in Israel to support all things Bibi all the time. Adelson is under investigation for allegedly bribing Chinese officials in Macau in reference to his casino empire there. Since Adelson is potentially an agent of Chinese influence and is a partisan of one of Israel’s most rightwing parties, Romney’s indebtedness to him is disturbing.
7. It is distasteful that Romney is promising his donors in Jerusalem a war on Iran. When George W. Bush promised his pro-Israel supporters a war on Iraq, it cost the US at least $3 trillion, got hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed, destabilized the Gulf for some time, cost over 4,000 American soldiers’ lives, and damaged American power, credibility and the economy. As Nancy Reagan said of drugs, so US politicians must say to constant Israeli entreaties that the United States of America continually fight new wars in the Middle East on their behalf: “Just say no.” Instead, Romney is playing war enabler, and that abroad!
You'll need to go to article for the other eight. Comments there are also interesting.
So, on to Poland then...
Although it's not looking that promising...
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney attacked President Barack Obama’s administration this week for abandoning Poland and the Czech Republic by altering plans for an American missile defense system in Europe.
But the Slovak foreign minister, in Washington this week for meetings with U.S. officials, said Thursday that Europe has fully embraced the new approach to missile defense and said Mr. Romney was dredging up settled debates.
“People have moved on,” said Miroslav Lajcak, the minister of foreign affairs and deputy prime minister, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “We are in a different situation now. We are discussing a different project. I see no reason to revisit discussions from three years back.”
Maybe Mitt is
hoping this will help...
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Finally, I want to show this vid of Romney, hat tip to Jethrock.
Very illuminating, and one I don't think many have seen before.
Mitt Romney Lying & Imploding Over Mormonism... by