Before departing on a weeklong trip to Britain, Israel and Poland, Republican presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, launched a scathing attack on the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, triggering a series of analyses on some of the points he raised strongly in a speech.
Speaking at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Reno, Nev., Romney noted that he would not criticize President Barack Obama while overseas.
But his blistering criticism of Obama’s foreign relations policies represented his use of the occasion to shred the White House’s record. while still at home. “This was as tough a speech as Romney has delivered during the campaign,” a report, evaluating Romney’s comments, noted in the Washington Post.
The Republican candidate found reason to criticize Obama in connection with virtually every hot spot around the world: Israel, Egypt, Iran, Russia, China, Poland. Romney’s speech was billed as the table-setter for a journey that inevitably will be compared with the one Obama took four years ago as a candidate.
In a pre-trip conference call, his advisers sought to lower expectations. Romney, they said, will learn and listen in three countries that are among the staunchest U.S. allies. “Given those constraints, Romney decided to get everything off his chest before leaving.” The Post report, assessing the Republican hopeful’s speech, said the sharp critique will heighten the importance of his trip while subjecting him to greater scrutiny and more questions about his foreign policy.
