Romney’s big speech yesterday shows that he’s basically the same as Obama, except that he’ll outsource Israel policy to Netanyahu, spend even more on the military, and arm Syrian rebels. Add to that a heaping helping of hysterical “we need to make the rest of the world our bitchez” rhetoric:
Finally, Romney proclaimed, “The 21st century can and must be an American century.” This is where he and his advisers, many of them Bush-Cheney neo-cons, share a dangerous assumption about the world. They seem to believe that the United States can wield the same force and influence it did during the Cold War, if only a strong president sat in the White House again. Yet the rise of American power after World War II was facilitated by the geopolitics of the day: a bipolar international system, a faceoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, with much of the rest of the world choosing, or falling into, one camp or the other. When the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union imploded, this international system collapsed as well—and, as yet, nothing has taken its place. Power has dispersed as power-centers have weakened.
As he has on other occasions, Romney asserted that a president must “use America’s great power to shape history,” not to let events shape America. But the fact is there are no superpowers in today’s world; no country has as much power to shape history—or as little immunity to the influences of others—as America did in the Cold War era. To exercise true leadership, a president must come to grips with the limits of his or her power. This has nothing to do with notions of “American decline.” It has to do with the shattering of the Cold War world.
That’s Fred Kaplan, who picks the whole speech apart. If this is a “choice election”, Romney made it pretty clear that the choice is between war and lots and lots of war topped with delusion.
some guy
Romney has permanently secured Jennifer Rubin’s vote. Rational people, not so much.
Shrillhouse
Am I the only one who finds this crap incredibly arrogant and offensive? Obviously, I’d prefer an “American” century, over a “North Korean” century (whatever that means), but the neocon habit of constantly shouting “We’re number 1!!!” is every bit as grating now as it was when the PNAC-ers were saying it in 1998.
But remember, they hate us because of our freedom!!!
some guy
“I will deepen our critical cooperation with our partners in the Gulf. ”
At least Rmoney agrees with Obama on one thing. If you can’t cooperate with fundamentalist, misogynistic, theocratic monarchies sitting atop huge pools of oil then who can you cooperate with?
beltane
@Shrillhouse: It is just mindless jingoism. If you are an American, every century is an American century just as every century is a Chinese century for the Chinese. They have, of course, had many more centuries than us.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Shrillhouse: Well, there’s sort of a reason they hate us for our freedom. Not too many countries have the freedom to invade a country and have the rest of the world let it happen. Very few countries have the election of their leader have as much impact on the rest of the world as us.
It would be useful if Republicans didn’t think they we had to be an empire in order to assert ourselves.
Jay in Oregon
Romney/Ryan 2012
Stop-Loss 2: Electric Boogaloo
Scott S.
What’s really important is that we invade Iran, re-invade Iraq and Afghanistan, and bomb Mecca. Maybe we can go back to talking smack about France — truly, those were this nation’s glory days.
1badbaba3
@some guy: Just one thing?
some guy
@1badbaba3:
hee
Foxhunter
This is PNAC all over again.
Edit: Oops. I see this was referenced above by Shrillhouse.
amk
Even our beloved kessler had to call out the crap of one of mittbot’s lies.
Paul
So we are giving up our mortgage deduction for an even bigger military, a military that is already bigger than the rest of the world combined. Yes, that makes sense…
Face
And yet this fucker is winning. Good job, compatriots.
rlrr
We armed Afghan rebels back in the early 80’s. How’d that work out?
beltane
@Paul: Perhaps Romney wants to bankrupt the US via military spending the way Reagan bankrupted the Soviet Union with the arms race. If the US brought down one superpower surely we should be able to bring down the other.
1badbaba3
@Face: No, he’s not. Unless you mean ‘winning’ in the Charlie Sheen sense.
Tone In DC
Yesterday, poll-crazed BJers took apart the recent Pew survey and numbers.
I don’t think RMoney is winning. Not the way Pew did that a few days ago. It may be near a dead heat right now, but that’s about it.
A lot of new people showing up on the blog lately. The vast majority of these folks seem to be surrender monkeys/firebaggers/low information voters.
Everything that happens is not good news for John McCain (or the cybernetic candidate). These gloom and doom comment threads don’t change that.
BGinCHI
Can someone please tell me why TPM keeps shitting their pants every time a national poll comes out and Romney is tied with or even ahead of Obama due to his post-
HolocaustOfLiesDebate bounce?National polls are not worth a mouthful of piss in an electoral college world.
Whoring for hits?
Barbara
I really think that Obama should hit Romney hard for being completely in thrall to George Bush’s foreign policy team and throwing more money at the military than even the generals and admirals want, and, basically, all but committing to go to war with Iran, a country 3 times the size of Iraq and much more sophisticated.
He wants to make the U.S. into a permanent foreign military occupation force with OUR sons and daughters, not his. Just say it.
rlrr
@Barbara:
He wants to make the U.S. into a permanent foreign military occupation force with OUR sons and daughters, not his. Just say it.
The Romney family is not exactly known for its military service…
jwb
@BGinCHI: Yes, almost certainly every time TPM posts one of these “polls show sky is falling” articles, they’re hits go through the roof. It’s one reason I never go to TPM whenever it’s likely poll dancing is on the program.
quannlace
One story that actually does make me think someone’s cooking the numbers:
On CNN: ‘Romney has surge in female voters.’
Bitches, please.
1badbaba3
@Tone In DC: Those new folks aren’t firebaggers or surrender monkeys, they’re just here for the spirited debate, and for the feces-enhanced punch.
They love it. You should too.
Paul
@quannlace:
If true, then women can only blame themselves when he and his counterparts in Congress come up with policies they don’t like.
If they think Romney would have signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, then I have a bridge for sale for them.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@some guy:
Rmoney’s got this much going for him: his religious backgroun is that of a fundamentalist, misogynistic, theocratic monarchy. If Utah had sat on a vast pool of oil, it would have been Saudi Arabia without the brown people…and camels.
Hunter Gathers
@Tone In DC:
Gloom and Doom are the preferred sustenance of the Manic Progressive. It’s like Buy One, Get One Free Day at your local pizza joint. Lines out the fucking door.
zzyzx
@BGinCHI:
If national polls really are moving that much, we’ll see similar movement in the states. I find it hard to believe that the entire election will hinge on one bad day – especially when that came from poor body language, not from actual things said – from the President, but the American people have done stupid things before.
BGinCHI
@zzyzx: See History, American, 2000-2008 Executive Branch.
Sly
@Shrillhouse:
It’s not so much a shallow triumphalism as it is a shallow terror; for the neoconservative, the United States is the only agent capable of serving as the last great bulwark against the hordes of ignorant mudpeople who want to tear everything down that’s good in the world. Where Kaplan get’s it right is that this is simply an extension of their Cold War ethos. After all, it rose during the New Deal period as a quasi-Marxist but utterly reactionary response to Stalinism, and gained prominence when Cold War liberalism started to fracture in the wake of Vietnam. The Cold War is all they know, so they see everything through that lens.
burnspbesq
@beltane:
Which has worked out so well for the average Chinese that working for Foxconn seems like a great idea.
TexasMango
@Face: No, he’s not.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Face: I’m not going to freak the fuck out until there’s trouble in the cookie poll, currently 6735 to 5408. Romney has trailed from the beginning. And FWIW, the bakery owner is a BYU grad and one of the founders of the BYU Marriott School.
Brachiator
And a heaping side of incoherence.
There was a clip of Romney talking to some former bigwigs, on yesterday’s Maddow show. He looked like a frightened schoolboy sitting for an exam. His entire vision seemed to come down to “”uh, we need to be prepared for something, because uh, the world is complex and you never know what could happen.”
American Exceptionalism with “fill in the blank” anxiety.
El Cid
Do not be surprised when in the debate Mitt Romney completely denies taking any of the positions that he has just taken in this speech.
SenyorDave
@Barbara: What you said. His chief foreign policy advisor is Dan Senor, one of the architects of the Iraq war, and he also relies on JOhn Bolton, part-time war criminal and part-time walrus (apologies to walruses everywhere).
Of course, Romney is a tough guy who doesn’t do nuance.
Tone In DC
@Hunter Gathers:
LULz.
Brachiator
@El Cid:
Facts and positions won’t matter.
Romney’s whole deal will be “Obama is weak. I am strong. And did you notice that I’m white? When I’m president, our allies will respect us again, and our enemies will fear us again, because the world will behold my smiling mighty whiteness and be thankful that the natural order of things has been restored.”
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
Great. The US as AIPAC’s Brute Squad.
What a thrilling, productive future for my country looms.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Brachiator: White and delightsome.
Randy P
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Along those lines, I accidentally voted for Romney a couple of weeks ago. Was in the 7-11 and grabbed what looked like the size cup I wanted. It was puzzling because a couple of them looked to be nearly the same size.
Next time I was in there I saw the sign about their stupid “vote with your coffee” promotion and realized i’d bought a red Romney cup before. They have them turned so you don’t see the logo, and then the cardboard sleeve covers it up. So I bought a blue one. Now my effective contribution to that “poll” is a net zero.
Need to get a few more blue coffees to run up the score.
Yeah, I know, it’s idiotic and trivial. Might as well go for the win anyway.
Gindy53
@Brachiator: More like “white and delightfulsome”. Straight out of the Book of Mormon or Pearl of Great Price or one of their other whacked out texts.
ET
I don’t think is just outsourcing our Israel policy to Bibi he is ultimately outsourcing our entire middle east policy to Bibi considering how intertwined that part of the world is.
1badbaba3
@rlrr: I heard a rumor that it didn’t work out too well. But the new showrunner says next season will be the last. Thank gawd. It has sucked since Tillman left before getting to do the big reveal.
Canadian Shield
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God:
Iran: Beat it or I’ll call the brute squad
US: I’m on the brute squad
Iran (looks up): You are the brute squad
valency
The arming Syrian rebels part is very peculiar given a dominant meme in the right wing sphere is that arming the Arab spring just encourages Islamists into power. I guess the feeling from his Israeli handlers is that since the current regime supports Hezbollah and the Syrian rebels are much cooler on that relationship, a regime change might be a good thing, plus the Syrian government could hardly get any /more/ Islamist.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Canadian Shield:
INCONTHEVABLE!