White House wants Romney to explain Israel remarks

[Tx4obama]

Source: Agence France-Presse (via Raw Story)

WASHINGTON — The White House called Monday on Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to explain recent remarks including his apparent endorsement of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a position that counters US policy.

Romney, in the midst of a three-nation tour, gave a speech Sunday in Jerusalem where he hailed the city as “the capital of Israel,” in apparent support of a position held by the Jewish state but never accepted by the global community.

The comment was swiftly rejected by Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat as “unacceptable” and “harmful to American interests in our region.”

But after Romney made fresh controversial statements Monday to donors in Jerusalem including suggesting Israeli “culture” helped explain the country’s economic success — a position Erakat denounced as “racist” — President Barack Obama’s office urged Romney to clarify his comments.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/30/white-house-wants-romney-to-explain-israel-remarks/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. If Romney wants to play with the big boys, he has to do a lot more thinking.

He is such an idiot.

[xocet]

23. His hamster is spinning its wheel as fast as it can. Don't be too hard on the poor little guy.

n/t

[Richard D]

26. The cage is spinning . . .

. . . but the hamster is dead.

[Lint Head]

2. Maybe he also believes the US capitol should be in Salt Lake.

[Igel]

7. I don't know that he's up for moving the building.

Probably not much for moving the capital, either.

[sakabatou]

3. To which Romney screws up in his non-apology explanation

[Renew Deal]

4. I doubt Romney really believes that

Because he is a panderer and if he spoke to the Palestinians he would say something different. I doubt he really knows what he believes (or cares to know).

[mia]

5. Borderline traitor?

He's way beyond hubris. Romney dismissed US policy.

Will he call for another apology from the White House?

[Igel]

15. "Romney dismissed US policy" "Borderline traitor?"

This is distressing.

Does every presidential candidate have to restate his support for US policy as set by the president?

Did Obama, when he was running, just parrot *'s Iraq and Guantanamo policy? Did * parrot Clinton's policy, or even just his foreign policy (that is, if * had anything to say about foreign policy)? Did Clinton parrot Bush I's? I know that Reagan didn't parrot Carter's (and at the time thought that this, wrt the USSR, was a good thing).

How convincing would a speech be: "I disagree with my opponent's policy and support them openly. But when I'm in charge, I'll change them, not that I disagree with them. Above all, I can't say what my policies would be except that I agree with the current President."

It's one thing to think our guy's right. It's entirely another to assume that the laws are just written for our sake. Disagree with *, public service; disagree with Obama, borderline traitor, the hubris of ... that man?

It used to be the ideal that politics stopped at the country's borders. It was unsound to criticize the current president abroad. I think, but I can't cite the instance, that Obama violated or came very close to violating this ideal. It was a point of pride. Romney's "Jerusalem" bit doesn't rise to this level. I dislike this kind of asymmetry in values and standards.

[starroute]

17. There's a difference between disagreeing and sabotaging

The Israeli/Palestinian situation is incredibly delicate. The status of Jerusalem is the most delicate issue of all -- one that has carefully been held in a Heisenbergian situation of total ambiguity.

Romney is completely oblivious to all matters of subtlety, diplomacy, and ambiguity. And his heavy-handed endorsement of extremist positions would not only make any solution of the Middle East's most ticklish problem impossible if he were elected president but casts fresh obstacles in the way of negotiations even if he isn't.

[starroute]

18. And there's also this bizarre little contradiction

Romney has repeatedly glossed over his lack of any foreign policy agenda by saying he can't disagree with the president. But somehow he feels perfectly free to broadcast it on the dog-whistle frequency.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/in-israel-romney-refuses-to-criticize-obama

During a CBS interview while on a trip to Israel, Mitt Romney refused multiple opportunities to criticize President Obama’s foreign policy in the region, evoking the phrase “politics ends at the water’s edge.”

“While I’m on foreign soil, I just don’t feel that I should be speaking about differences with regards to myself and President Obama on foreign policy,” he said in the interview that aired Sunday on “Face The Nation.” “Are there differences between us? Of course.”

[Scootaloo]

31. Obama didn't march around the world shit-talking Bush and US policy

And actively working to undermind current policy without holding office.

See the difference?

hell, if Romney were to have even couched his statement - "if elected, I'll recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital" , rather than "jerusalem is Israel's capital" - it would have been acceptable. Make him look daft just the same, but it'd be in within bounds.

[chknltl]

6. This promises to be very interesting!

[chollybocker]

8. Mitt's got a serious case

of loafer-in-mouth disease.

Messrs Plouffe and Axelrod must be shrugging, "We may as well be on vacation this summer."

[Oldtimeralso]

27. All this time...

I thought it was crainum in rectumitis!

[Jessy169]

9. The pressure is on Romney

I think that with the article published by Der Spiegal today -- 'Romney Has Already Disqualified Himself' -- and now the White House calling him out in public to explain his comments, Romney must be feeling some pressure. By now, he's got to have figured out that his statement on Jerusalem being the capital of Israel has put him in an embarrassing corner on the world stage. It isn't just Americans eyeballing Romney closely now -- it is the whole world. What -- a -- moron. Can't wait to see how Romney responds.

[stanchaz]

10. Mitt the mouth

I see that Mitt the mouth is babbling. Again.
"The hand of providence" leading Israel?
Come on now Mitt, I thought we would be past
that "god is on our side" crap by now.
And then... to blame Palestinian poverty and
the lousy Palestinian GDP on "cultural" differences.
Hey, what do you EXPECT?... after years
of Israeli blockades, Israeli occupations, and Israeli apartheid?
To paraphrase one of marvelous Mitt's infamous quotes:
Palestinians are people too, my friend!
The old proverb says that where there is no vision,
the people shall perish.
Vulture capitalist Mitt Romney has no vision,
no understanding, and no compassion.

[Jessy169]

14. after years of Israeli blockades, Israeli occupations, and Israeli apartheid?

You are so right. And another point: Our deeply racist Republican citizens are always ranting about the poor blacks, the crime rate, the poverty, the welfare. But what they don't have the brains or the spiritual capacity to consider is the few hundred years of slavery, sadistic treatment and destruction of self-worth that those blacks have endured. It would be similar to beating an innocent man senseless, then ridiculing him for not being able to stand up and walk away. Cruelty runs deep in the Republican Party, that's my take.

[Grassy Knoll]

11. Ritchie Mitt was taught to suck his feet.....

as a young boy to show his superiority, poor children couldn't afford
the golden back brace required. Foot in mouth is an acquired taste.

[DallasNE]

12. Well, At Least Romney Knocked His Gaffes In The UK Off The News

Not sure this is the best way to go about it though because he really stepped in it in Israel. The complete lack of gravitas Romney has shown has caught me by surprise. What a complete disaster Romney has turned out to be.

[thelordofhell]

13. Here is his explanation

"I was whoring for the Jewish money donations!!"

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. "Obama’s office urged Romney to clarify his comments"

I'm surprised Romney didn't claim Obama wants to wipe Israel off the map.

You know that's the way his advisers think.

[longship]

29. That's not what most American Jews think.

They are substantially for Obama.

Face it! Rmoney was playing to the Likud party in Israel, and a dog whistle to the US fundies, who absolutely love Israeli Jews because if WW III starts there, it means Jeebus comes back and the world gets saved -- metaphorically only because billions have to die to save the true believers. But some sacrifices have to be made so I can be saved.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

34. Just goes to show how phoney Republicans are.

The campaign said it got what it wanted. A video of their guy walking up to the wailing wall and touching it and closing his eyes.

Think of it as stock Republican footage.

(At least Romney didn't tell the Israelis the Holy of Holies is located in Salt Lake City.)

[PatrynXX]

19. So far...

Mitt Romney has tried to start a war with London, Palestine .. then stuck over in Poland.. Wonder who else he offended...

[BlueMTexpat]

20. Anyone who would select John Bolton as a foreign policy advisor

doesn't give a whit about anything but making provocative and warlike statements.

Bolton probably not only cleared but cheered everything Mitt has said.

[TomCADem]

21. Netenyahu Cornered Romney Into Giving Bebi A Blank Check To Start War

Netenyahu played Romney brilliantly. With billionaire GOP SuperPac Sheldon Adelson on hand, all Netenyahu had to do is start making his case for a preemptive strike on Iran, and Romney being the weenie that he is took the bait and said whatever seemed politically convenient at the moment. If Neocons took a moment to think about it, they should be outraged that Romney essentially signed away our sovereignty by promising to back an Israeli offensive without any type of conditions. Romney gave Bebi a blank check that will be paid with U.S. tax dollars and the lives of U.S. servicemen.

[RedStateLiberal]

22. Mitt could always respond with this perfectly plausible explanation:

[dimbear]

24. It should draw attention away from his endorsement of Israel's socialist med system. n/t

[Kalidurga]

25. Well at least he didn't start a war. Errrrrrr yet.

He has turned out to be only slightly more sane than Bachmann. It was neck n neck for a while until she went all McCarthist on people just because they are Muslims.

[tawadi]

28. Well, Mitt the Twit

The Oval Office is waiting.

[Kablooie]

30. The puppet is going haywire because no one is controlling his strings yet.

Once he has a skilled puppeteer making him dance, he will do much better.

[AllyCat]

32. I can explain it for him:

He's an IDIOT.

[Ian David]

33. "What? All I said was that Jews are good with money. How is that racist?"-- Romney n/t