Last week’s column was written hours before President Barack Obama addressed the Democratic National Convention.
There was therefore no time to comment on it. Even though it did not surpass the superb wordsmiths which preceded it – Bill Clinton, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry – it effectively made the points which the president wanted to make and maintained the distance between the ruling Democrats and the Republicans. The latest Gallup Poll shows the Democrats with a six-point lead overall and leading in three key battleground states.
Last week I mentioned my disappointment at Clint Eastwood speaking to an empty chair representing the president at the Republican Convention. One Paul Kokoski writing in the local Press was happy there are still “some beautiful people left in Hollywood . . . who have not been totally taken in by . . . Barack Obama and his godless agenda”.
What a searing attack! Millions of black people across the world painfully recall Ralph Ellison’s book Invisible Man about American Blacks in the 1930s. It is a fact of 21st century life that the United States has its first African American president. To pretend it is not a reality and portray him as an empty chair, smacks of the most despicable aspects of American history.
Race and racism are still issues in this presidential campaign. Though not openly discussed, their subliminal power is never far away. In the process of disrespecting the president personally, respect for the most powerful political office in the world also suffers. The much vaunted post-racial status hoped for post 2008 remains elusive.
The reaction of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to the killing of the American ambassador to Libya and three colleagues at the consulate in Benghazi, and the storming of the United States Embassy in Cairo on 9/11/2012, showed the world that his earlier well documented faux pas in London and Israel were emblematic of a man out of his depth on foreign policy issues.
It is a given that politicians withhold their comments and criticisms on national disasters in which Americans have been killed until after the next of kin have been informed. Rushing in to be first with a comment, Romney crudely brushed aside national convention pre-empting official notification of the victims’ families. He clearly wants power at any price.
President Obama put his glaring shortcomings elegantly, saying “he shoots first and aims later”. What is amazing is that a man so dangerously out of his depth could accuse the president of not managing foreign policy well and apologizing for American values. One distinguished commentator cruelly described him as “an empty suit”.
It speaks poorly of the quality of his advisors that he continues to make so many foreign policy mistakes. It also raises questions about his judgement and character. It is a rule of thumb that when there is a national catastrophe, rather than rushing to a microphone to score political points, rational thought and cool words or no words at all is the way to go.
It is disgraceful that on a day when the country commemorated its worst national disaster, a political aspirant would exploit the death of four diplomats in North Africa. Furthermore, it boggles the mind that he could accuse the president of “sympathizing with the enemy”. Not only is it not true, it shows a basic lack of decency and respect for the highest post in the land.
Romney’s misleading rhetoric took the 2012 campaign to a new low. With Americans being killed in a foreign country, the time demands setting partisan politics aside as the nation mourns.
Leading Republican strategist John Sununu was scathing in his comments on Romney’s misplaced rhetoric. He thought he showed a distinct lack of sophistication on foreign affairs which will be exploited by the Democrats. The Obama/Romney foreign affairs debate will be most revealing.
Just before the Libyan attack, Egyptians angry over an American-made, anti-Islam film scaled the walls of the Cairo Embassy tearing down the Stars And Stripes, replacing it with a black, Islamist flag. Fears of the atrocities of the Arab Spring proliferate in Washington.
It is still not clear if the abhorrent, reprehensible film was at the root of the outbreaks or whether there were orchestrated attacks commemorating 9/11 by fringe groups which may not be as well organized or active as previously, but are fronted by opportunistic elements with never-say-die attitudes.
Breaking news out of the volatile Middle East is of an attack on the United States Embassy in Yemen and security has been stepped up region-wide. The Arab Spring is not over.
Dangerously shallow and ill-informed, before Romney before he opens his mouth next time, should abandon the bluster and get a foreign policy and diplomacy tutor.
• Peter Simmons, a social scientist, is a former diplomat.
