[A note to our younger readers:
That subject-line is a playful allusion to the title of a notorious movie from before you were born, “Debbie Does Dallas”. ]
It’s almost comical.
In the shock of 9/11, Le monde (perhaps with a nod to JFK’s celebrated “Ich bin ein Berliner”) headlined: “Nous sommes tous américains.” But Dubya wasted no time wasting that good will, stirring up the francophobes that pullulate in his milieu, until finally the House changed “French fries” to “Freedom fries” on the menu (again with a Germany-related echo: during WWI, sauerkraut was re-dubbed “Victory cabbage”).
So now Dumbney goes to England, and pointlessly stirs up a hornet’s-nest:
If Barack Obama were dreaming up the ideal start to Mitt Romney's first overseas visit as the presumptive Republican nominee, the president might wonder whether his rival could offend the US's historic transatlantic ally.
That would obviously be rejected as impossibly ambitious, so the president might then ask himself whether Romney would fail to remember the name of one of his hosts in London.
Surely a successful businessman would never make such a basic error. So the president would wonder whether Romney would breach convention by saying in public that he met the head of MI6, Britain's overseas intelligence agency.
To the undoubted joy of the White House, Romney stumbled on all those fronts in London on Thursday, the first day of his visit to three of the US's closest allies - Britain, Israel and Poland.
Downing Street, which had gone to great lengths to give Romney the red carpet treatment without breaching strict protocol rules, was astonished when he questioned whether London was capable of running a successful Olympics. In an interview with NBC after his arrival in London, Romney said it was "disconcerting" that the Olympics organizers had encountered difficulties over security. One Whitehall source described Romney's remarks as a "total shocker" that had rendered officials "speechless".
David Cameron wasted no time in delivering a carefully calibrated put down. During a visit to the Olympic Park, the prime minister said Britain was delivering the games in a bustling city. "Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere," the prime minister said in a none too subtle reference to the 2002 Salt Lake City games …
If Romney, and the xenophobes who have been key to his primary campaign, somehow claw their way back into office, the House menu may come to feature “Freedom muffins” instead of the English kind …
Appendix: Comments from readers and kibitzers
This admittedly minor gaffe has evoked reams of gleeful comment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/post/summer-olympics-romney-medals-in-the-gaffethon/2012/07/27/gJQAf5tdDX_blog.html?hpid=z8
Here’s what he was saying: “My Olympics were better than these guys’ Olympics, and my hair is better, or at least much stiffer, their their hair.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/achenblog/post/summer-olympics-romney-medals-in-the-gaffethon/2012/07/27/gJQAf5tdDX_blog.html?hpid=z8
Here’s what he was saying: “My Olympics were better than these guys’ Olympics, and my hair is better, or at least much stiffer, their their hair.”
From TN in Texas:
All is not lost, Mitt! You can still mollify our friends across the Pond! All it takes is something in the spirit of Gilbert and Sullivan, the Pirates of Penzance perhaps. Here goes:
"I am the very model of a modern major candidate.
My thoughts are incoherent, and I am without a plan, to-date.
I've managed the Olympics, and I quote my base hysterical
On everything from gun control to policies chimerical.
"I'm very well acquainted too with matters economical
I outsource jobs in such a way I think you'd find quite comical.
About my healthcare history I am teeming with a lot of views
With many shameless flips and flops, depending on the facts I choose."
"I am the very model of a modern major candidate.
My thoughts are incoherent, and I am without a plan, to-date.
I've managed the Olympics, and I quote my base hysterical
On everything from gun control to policies chimerical.
"I'm very well acquainted too with matters economical
I outsource jobs in such a way I think you'd find quite comical.
About my healthcare history I am teeming with a lot of views
With many shameless flips and flops, depending on the facts I choose."
Julie of Joysy:
Wow, this is surprising. I thought that, you know, being Anglo-Saxon and all, this part of the trip would be a piece of cake for Mitt. Now he's gotten Cameron and the mayor of London all riled up, and the mayor of Salt Lake City is firing back at Cameron for implying that Salt Lake City is "in the middle of nowhere". One day out of the country and Mitt's created an international incident. Just imagine what a President Romney could do at a summit meeting.
Joyce of DC:
Another one born with a silver foot in his mouth
[Update, late] Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Someone just found this page via the searchstring
mit s.o.b. romney
(for you see, WDJ knows every keystroke you make -- every thought in your head, in fact).
This, we deprecate. Firmly do we condemn such ad-hominem remarks anent a public servant (well no actually, not currently or recently a public servant, more like a private predator -- but let that pass).
Anyhow, where were we (harrumph).
Ah yes -- Ringingly do we denounce any reference to Willard "the Mitt" Romney as an "s.o.b."
For truly, he is not the son of one.
His father, Romney the elder, was a businessman who actually helped make things; and later a politician known for moderation, who never flippantly proposed invading foreign countries simply to please a domestic chickenhawk constituency, and who freely made available his personal tax returns for a period of many years.
No, it is not the father who is the "b."
If anything... it is the son.
Someone just found this page via the searchstring
mit s.o.b. romney
(for you see, WDJ knows every keystroke you make -- every thought in your head, in fact).
This, we deprecate. Firmly do we condemn such ad-hominem remarks anent a public servant (well no actually, not currently or recently a public servant, more like a private predator -- but let that pass).
Anyhow, where were we (harrumph).
Ah yes -- Ringingly do we denounce any reference to Willard "the Mitt" Romney as an "s.o.b."
For truly, he is not the son of one.
His father, Romney the elder, was a businessman who actually helped make things; and later a politician known for moderation, who never flippantly proposed invading foreign countries simply to please a domestic chickenhawk constituency, and who freely made available his personal tax returns for a period of many years.
No, it is not the father who is the "b."
If anything... it is the son.
[Update, 29 July 2012] The tournée continues:
Does this include our support for an unprovoked attack upon Iran using the nuclear weapons that Israel already has, in abundance?
(You were aware of that fact, weren’t you ? Surely you didn’t fall for the propaganda about Iran “introducing” nuclear weapons into the Middle East.)
A disturbing consideration: That is what his spokesman said in public. The Mitt then proceeded to a closed-doors meeting with Israeli leaders, having revoked his earlier permission for press-coverage.
If egging on a combative nuclear power to launching an pre-emptive war is what he says in public, then what is so sensitive that he has to say it in private?
A reader comments:
Old, war mongering theocons like Bishop Willard are eager to send someone else's child to bleed and die while they themselves were dining on escargot in France when it was their turn to serve, and have kept their kids out of harm's way as well.
“Theocons.” Nice.
The sabre-rattling (or rather ICBM-rattling) alluded to above, we bar, but at least it is a legitimate position; it is not logically self-refuting. There are, indeed, folks out there in America, who would welcome a MidEast war involving the Holy Lands, since that would be the signal for Armageddon, after which they and their co-parishoners in the Hardshell Twiceborn Megabaptist Texas Tabernacle get Raptured up to heaven, snickering all the way and thumbing their noses at their heathen neighbors and at the Papists, who get Left Behind. Fine; soit.
Less important geopolitically, but amusingly self-refuting, were some of the other gems he let fall from his vast store of them, e.g. re healthcare:
.
~
The sabre-rattling (or rather ICBM-rattling) alluded to above, we bar, but at least it is a legitimate position; it is not logically self-refuting. There are, indeed, folks out there in America, who would welcome a MidEast war involving the Holy Lands, since that would be the signal for Armageddon, after which they and their co-parishoners in the Hardshell Twiceborn Megabaptist Texas Tabernacle get Raptured up to heaven, snickering all the way and thumbing their noses at their heathen neighbors and at the Papists, who get Left Behind. Fine; soit.
Less important geopolitically, but amusingly self-refuting, were some of the other gems he let fall from his vast store of them, e.g. re healthcare:
As for Romney’s invidious comparisons with Palestinians -- but no, I’ve got to get away from this corrupting stuff, and get back to math. Let Tom Friedman tell it himself; like he says, he’ll make it quick:
July 31, 2012
Why Not in Vegas?
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
I’ll make this quick. I have one question and one observation about Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel. The question is this: Since the whole trip was not about learning anything but about how to satisfy the political whims of the right-wing, super pro-Bibi Netanyahu, American Jewish casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, why didn’t they just do the whole thing in Las Vegas? I mean, it was all about money anyway — how much Romney would abase himself by saying whatever the Israeli right wanted to hear and how big a jackpot of donations Adelson would shower on the Romney campaign in return. Really, Vegas would have been so much more appropriate than Jerusalem. They could have constructed a plastic Wailing Wall and saved so much on gas.
The observation is this: Much of what is wrong with the U.S.-Israel relationship today can be found in that Romney trip. In recent years, the Republican Party has decided to make Israel a wedge issue. In order to garner more Jewish (and evangelical) votes and money, the G.O.P. decided to “out-pro-Israel” the Democrats by being even more unquestioning of Israel. This arms race has pulled the Democratic Party to the right on the Middle East and has basically forced the Obama team to shut down the peace process and drop any demands that Israel freeze settlements. This, in turn, has created a culture in Washington where State Department officials, not to mention politicians, are reluctant to even state publicly what is U.S. policy — that settlements are “an obstacle to peace” — for fear of being denounced as anti-Israel.
Add on top of that, the increasing role of money in U.S. politics and the importance of single donors who can write megachecks to “super PACs” — and the fact that the main Israel lobby, Aipac, has made itself the feared arbiter of which lawmakers are “pro” and which are “anti-Israel” and, therefore, who should get donations and who should not — and you have a situation in which there are almost no brakes, no red lights, around Israel coming from America anymore. No wonder settlers now boast on op-ed pages that the game is over, they’ve won, the West Bank will remain with Israel forever — and they don’t care what absorbing all of its Palestinians will mean for Israel’s future as a Jewish democracy.
It is into this environment that Romney wandered to add more pandering and to declare how he will be so much nicer to Israel than big, bad Obama. This is a canard. On what matters to Israel’s survival — advanced weaponry and intelligence — Defense Minister Ehud Barak told CNN on Monday, “I should tell you honestly that this administration under President Obama is doing in regard to our security more than anything that I can remember in the past.”
While Romney had time for a $50,000-a-plate breakfast with American Jewish donors in Jerusalem, with Adelson at his elbow, he did not have two hours to go to Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, to meet with its president, Mahmoud Abbas, or to share publicly any ideas on how he would advance the peace process. He did have time, though, to point out to his Jewish hosts that Israelis are clearly more culturally entrepreneurial than Palestinians. Israel today is an amazing beehive of innovation — thanks, in part, to an influx of Russian brainpower, massive U.S. aid and smart policies. It’s something Jews should be proud of. But had Romney gone to Ramallah he would have seen a Palestinian beehive of entrepreneurship, too, albeit small, but not bad for a people living under occupation. Palestinian business talent also built the Persian Gulf states. In short, Romney didn’t know what he was talking about.
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