Strategic Foolery

The trip to Europe was intended to raise Mitt Romney’s credibility; instead, it ended with his spokesman asking the journalists to kiss his behind.

Last week, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney started a journey abroad in London, where he questioned whether the city was up to the task of arranging the Olympic Games. The British people and Prime Minister David Cameron were not amused.

After London, he went on to Jerusalem. There, Romney made clear his opinion that cultural differences are a major factor in why the economy is slower in Palestinian areas than in Israeli ones. Palestinian representatives deemed the statement racist.

In European media, Mitt Romney has been called naïve and prejudiced as a result of his mistakes. A major German paper wrote after the visit to Jerusalem that he had disqualified himself as a mediator in the Middle East. It’s not hard to agree.

Blaming the economic hardships suffered by Palestinians on their culture is not the same as racism, but it does show ignorance in statesmanship and in the complexity of Middle Eastern issues.

However, there is nothing indicating that Romney’s staff considers the trip a failure. Romney is inexperienced in foreign affairs, and this might give him something of an alibi: some pretty pictures together with famous politicians and more names of statesmen to throw around in interviews.

Europe may consider Romney a fool, but it may turn out to his advantage among Republican voters that he dares treat European heads of state with a measure of nonchalance – just as George W. Bush once did.

And foreign politics will weigh as light as a feather in November. The main issue in this election, which takes less and less interest in the affairs of others, will be jobs in America. This will put President Barack Obama at a disadvantage.

In his 2008 campaign, a decisive issue was how America was to handle the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama has held his promises. The war in Iraq is over, and the American troops are about to leave Afghanistan. Ironically, this may not pay off for Obama.

The same goes for the credibility Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have managed to build. In many ways, they have given America a new beginning, a way out of the ideological dead end into which the Bush administration led the country.

The running is even between President Obama and Mitt Romney. As usual in American elections, it rather depends on how you count: If you look to the number of electors in states that tend toward either Obama or Romney, the President seems to have an edge – as long as he wins Florida.

The state of Florida has a strategically important Jewish minority that could help Romney to victory. If they feel that a candidate who insults Palestinians with near-racist comments has a great future, that is.

Unfortunately, it’s not impossible that they do.