Looking Strong at the Finish Line

Suddenly, foreign policy is an election issue.

A scant two months before the presidential election, more uncontrollable factors are emerging in the American election campaign. On the domestic front is the continuing Chicago teachers’ strike that has become a conflict of loyalties between the unions that Obama supports and his former White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, the current Mayor of Chicago.

On the foreign policy side, Obama is being tested by the attacks on American facilities as well as the harsh criticism leveled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concerning Obama’s policies on Iran.

The fact that foreign policy issues may play a role in the election can be either good or bad for a sitting president: On the one hand, external attacks traditionally result in Americans uniting behind their president. On the other hand looms a serious disruption in U.S.-Israeli relations, possibly coupled with the false perception that the president is weak against the Islamic world. That might cost him the support of some Jewish voters.

That could mean the loss of Florida’s 29 electoral votes to Romney — without which the election would be difficult to win. Many believe that that is the true goal behind Netanyahu’s strategy.

Conservative U.S. media outlets have already dubbed the anti-U.S. protests in Cairo, Libya and Yemen a “wildfire” and are interpreting it as proof of Obama’s leadership weakness.

Obama is fortunate that Romney’s counterattacks are so inept. Instead of condemning the attacks abroad on a statesman-like level and offering the president his support, Romney criticizes what he calls Obama’s “apologies” to the demonstrators. That wasn’t only nonsense, it was partisan politics at a time when patriotism is necessary — in other words, Romney’s attack scored a goal against his own team.

There’s plenty of evidence that the foreign policy pressure will increase in the run up to the election. But as the election heats up, the tendency in Washington is to go after scoring short-term points. Whether Obama succumbs to that strategy might decide more than just an election: It could spell the difference between war and peace.