Romney Is Going Out Into the World

The U.S. presidential candidate is coming to Europe — but Obama is still closer to the Germans.

Mitt Romney, the chosen challenger of Obama, is on his way to Europe at the end of July. He will probably only visit Germany if Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomes him. There is no reason to roll out any red carpets.

The time for big trips for U.S. presidential candidates is after the spring primaries and before the national convention in August. Every new candidate must go out into the world at least once to prove himself to voters at home as a presentable statesman and a trustworthy commander-in-chief. Barack Obama did that in 2008 with a celebrated tour of Europe. At the Victory Column, he gave a speech in front of 200,000 Berliners.

Republican Romney is now planning for his debut on the world stage. Like Obama four years ago, the former governor of Massachusetts has absolutely no experience in foreign policy. So far in this election campaign, he has gotten attention particularly by means of strong slogans and a board of foreign-political advisors, dominated by party hardliners. The old Republican guard of experienced internationalists, former Secretaries of State James Baker and George Schultz are not among them. Romney’s team is looking in vain for pragmatists of a younger generation, such as Condoleezza Rice. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was isolated in the Bush administration because of his moderate views, called some of Romney’s advisors “quite far right.”

The candidate is actually being advised by a remarkably high number of experts from the Heritage Foundation, which is considered a melting pot of neoconservatives — a think tank that focuses on military interventions and previously set the Iraq War into motion through its ideology. Romney certainly has moderate advisors, and it is worth mentioning that he is softening some of his positions, but Romney is making himself into the candidate of a strong, confident America. He declared Russia America’s “number one geopolitical foe.” In the nuclear dispute with Iran, not only is the military option on the table, but Iran must fear it. He is criticizing Obama for accepting the decline of the U.S.

The fact that Great Britain is the only place besides Israel where he wants to give a speech might not be a coincidence. With regard to European affairs, Romney is being advised by a British man named Nile Gardiner who is propagating a break from traditional European policy: The U.S. should no longer focus on European integration and should instead focus primarily on its “special relationship” with London. With regard to Germany, Romney is obviously mainly interested in meeting the chancellor, who once did not allow Obama to speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Her frugal policy has recently made her very popular among American conservatives. However, in terms of foreign policy she is always closer to Obama.