Sunday, July 29, 2012

Willard's stab at wrapping Reagan in own wimpdom misfires terribly

Willard Romney has spent most of his time campaigning in the US issuing that old childhood taunt of "I'm rubber, you're glue; whatever you say bounces off me and sticks on you."

In conservative circles, that approach works just swimmingly when the target of such attacks is President Barack Obama but, when the target becomes the Republican Right Reverend Ronald Reagan, it's a tactic that takes on a toxicity that draws immediate return fire from a faithful flock.

In a recent attempt to absolve himself of his lack of national security bona fides, Mitt and his Mittwits took a shot at Reagan by invoking an anecdote culled from the memory of Reagan's Secretary of State James Baker. It just didn't work.

Willard tried to portray the former president's conversation with Baker, currently a Romney foreign policy advisor, as rationale for favoring economic issues over those of national security:
“And after the meeting, President Reagan called me in and said, ‘I want no more national-security meetings over the next 100 days—all of our time has to be focused on getting our economy going,’ ” Mr. Romney recalled Mr. Baker saying.
This attempt to pass his "wimp factor" along to a Republican icon, as one might guess, brought with it swift and ferocious pushback. If Romney seeks to moderate his hawkish desires that's one thing ... seeking to foist them off on a right-wing hero is a totally other.

First up swinging came American Enterprise Institute's Marc Theissen:
But the fact that Romney thinks it would be desirable to ignore the world for his first 100 days is troubling. Yes, the American people are focused on the economy – and understandably so. But Romney isn’t running for treasury secretary – he is running for Commander in Chief. And those responsibilities begin on Day 1 of his presidency.
Yeah, I had to add the underline but the italicized "desirable" is Marc's own. Say WHAT?? Oh, but it gets better when Bill Kristol's ears perk up upon hearing the apostasy. "Did President Reagan Neglect National Security?" he demands to know.
"What's more" Kristol rants, "I can't believe the story is true. Or if Reagan did once say what Baker says he said, it was an expression of exasperation after one (presumably unsatisfactory) meeting that neither Reagan nor Baker followed through on. In fact, I'll buy Jim Baker a very good dinner next time he's in Washington if he or anyone else can find a 100-day stretch (or a ten-day stretch) of the Reagan presidency in which President Reagan was involved in no national security meetings."
Then, switching back to current events, Kristol delivers the haymaker to Romney, reminding him that "With respect to the presidency, national security isn't a bug; it's a feature."

So much for Wimp Willard hiding behind that vaunted conservative icon.

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