Mitt Romney Makes an Appearance in the Old World

The Republican Candidate for U.S. President Begins His Overseas Tour

U.S. President Barack Obama’s main rival in the upcoming presidential election, Republican Mitt Romney, arrived in Europe on July 25 as part of a foreign policy attack on the acting president of the United States. Earlier in the primaries, the former Massachusetts governor made several aggressive statements addressing Moscow, Beijing and Tehran and sharply criticized the current head of the White House as having “failed in American international leadership.”* However, in a conversation with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta (a Russian government daily newspaper of record), a Washington expert expressed confidence that the internal policy ramifications of Romney’s overseas trip will hardly affect his chances of moving into the White House.

The first pit stop in the Old World for Romney is Great Britain, where the former Massachusetts governor will meet with the country’s Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague, as well as Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband and former English Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Commentators said the stop in London would not only give Mormon Romney the perfect opportunity to “come aglow” at the opening of the 2012 Olympic games, but also would allow him to remind foreign colleagues about his primary role in organizing the U.S.’ successful 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Meanwhile, the Republican’s pre-election staff announced that the foreign policy tour is meant for Romney to “learn and listen” more than anything, and there won’t be any immediate attacks on Obama from beyond the border, a practice typical in the American political tradition.

However, the next spot along the foreign tour will be Israel, which Romney previously declared as the first country that he will visit as U.S. president. Romney’s visit to Tel Aviv, where he will shake hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and other politicians, clearly carries anti-Obama undertones because the current American leader hasn’t visited Israel once since elected into office, and Obama’s personal relationship with Netanyahu, in the opinion of columnists, leaves something to be desired.

As expected, the Republican candidate will travel July 30 from the “Holy Land” to Poland, where he will participate in discussions with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski and former Polish President Lech Walesa.

It is proposed that in Poland specifically, where at least 50 percent of Poles prefer President Obama according to a June Pew Research Center survey, Romney will come out with a big foreign policy speech. As reported in the Washington Post, Romney's advisors plan to draw their own following of 1 to 2 million people to the speech, which Polish organizers can't promise.

“Considering Mitt Romney’s upcoming trip and the significant Polish electorate in the U.S. as a whole, particularly in the state of Illinois [the “birth” state of the current American president], Obama’s main rival always hopes to pull part of those voters over to his side,”* Leon Aron, director of Russian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and co-chair of Mitt Romney’s team of foreign policy advisors said to Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

During his tour, which is very reminiscent of Obama’s pre-election trip in the summer of 2008, Romney’s campaign staff intends to begin articulating his foreign policy platform. Romney’s pre-election statement, in essence, doesn’t currently contain an extensive foreign policy plan, with the exception of some paragraphs mixed in on his official website that generally refer to an “American Century” strategy. In an earlier interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Dimitri Simes, president of the U.S.’ Center for the National Interest in Washington D.C., explained that Romney’s speeches on issues of foreign policy during the Republican primaries represent a “provisional perspective, which is based on neither his previous experience, nor serious analysis.”

Commentary

In a meeting with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Leon Aron, long-time scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, explained that Romney’s foreign policy tour “serves more as a symbolic action, and the internal policy ramifications of his foreign speeches will hardly affect his chances to be voted into office as president of the United States.”*

“In American presidential campaigns, as a whole and in this one in particular, issues of foreign policy occupy a very small place. Until the November U.S. presidential election, the common American voter will be completely indifferent about whether Romney was in Europe,”* said Aron, also a member of Romney’s team of advisors on foreign policy issues.

In addition, one expert noted that the international trip on the threshold of elections is a peculiar ritual because “to completely forego meeting with foreign politicians during the campaign isn’t smiled upon.”*

According to political analysts, “Mitt Romney’s foreign policy platform during the campaign is constantly evolving.”* After the August Republican party conference in Florida, which will officially confirm Romney as the only Republican candidate in the U.S. presidential election, “the ex-governor of Massachusetts will come out to the national arena with his foreign policy plan evolving in depth and breadth, and a more clearly defined shift toward international problems will take place in September,”* said Aron.

By the Way

U.S. public opinion polls from CNN showed that on issues of foreign policy, a 52 percent majority of respondents prefer Obama, and only 36 percent prefer Romney. In these circumstances, it isn’t surprising for a Republican to put every effort into downplaying serious distinctions from the current president, presenting during his international tour an alternative foreign policy profile both to the foreign public and the American voters.

*Editor’s note: The following quotes, although accurately translated, could not be verified in English.