Romney Speech Offers Few Differences With Obama Policies

Romney Speech Offers Few Differences With Obama Policies

Mitt Romney’s speech on foreign policy did more to highlight his similarities with President Barack Obama than to draw sharp distinctions over handling global affairs.

In an address yesterday at the Virginia Military Institute, the Republican presidential nominee accused Obama of lacking a strategy for the Middle East, saying the region faces a higher risk of conflict now than it did when the president took office.

“I know the President hopes for a safer, freer, and a more prosperous Middle East allied with the United States. I share this hope. But hope is not a strategy,” Romney told cadets and military officials in Lexington, Virginia, during his fifth visit in four weeks to the politically competitive state.

Still, Romney offered few details of his own approach, and in his attempt to appeal to a broader base of American voters, he echoed several policies already being pursued by Obama, said Charles Kupchan, a U.S. foreign policy specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“The speech struck me as more moderate than previous ones, with less bluster and less neoconservative rhetoric,” Kupchan said in a phone interview, referring to a school of political thinking that emphasizes unilateral American leadership and military power. “The problem for Romney is when you take out the neocon rhetoric, he starts looking a lot like Obama.”

U.S. officials: Attack on consulate in Libya may have been planned

By Karen DeYoung, Michael Birnbaum and William Branigin, Published: September 12

U.S. officials and Middle East analysts said Wednesday that an attack that killed four Americans at a U.S. Consulate in eastern Libya may have been planned by extremists and inspired by al-Qaeda.

The U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans were killed Tuesday in an assault on the consulate in the city of Benghazi. President Obama strongly condemned the attack and pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice, vowing that “justice will be done.”

The attack followed a violent protest at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo over

Mitt Romney shoots off his Foot-In-Mouth Disease… again.

There are so many hilarious headlines that could be written.

What an utter idiot.

The Secret Service can protect him from others, but they can’t protect Mitt from his own political suicide.

More signs of President Obama’s re-election.

Oh… and be certain to read the comments following the story.

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Romney’s statement perfectly undiplomatic

Mitt Romney makes remarks on the attack on the US consulate in Libya (Reuters)September 12,

2012 6:41 pm, by Edward Luce

There are moments that can indelibly brand a politician and Mitt Romney may just have met his.

U.S. Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney makes remarks on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, in Jacksonville, Florida September 12, 2012. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES – Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS)

The alacrity – and brittle certainty – with which the Republican nominee responded to the violence against US diplomats on Tuesday night offers a snapshot of why his candidacy has failed to attract true believers. On Wednesday morning, Hillary Clinton read out a sombre statement condemning the killing of Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans. Forty minutes later, Barack Obama followed suit. Both focused on Mr Stevens’ tragic death.

In between Mr Romney squeezed in an openly political press conference in which he called the Obama administration’s response “disgraceful” and said it “should never apologise for America.” His condolences were brief and dutiful. The exercise was based on the strained allegation that Mr Obama had sought to mollify the protestors in Egypt (the US embassy in Cairo issued a statement that had not been approved by the White House).

In a race between two more evenly matched candidates, Tuesday night’s significance would have been to inject a foreign policy dimension into an almost wholly domestic campaign. That may be one outcome. But Mr Romney has

Why does gas cost $4.00/gallon? “All consumers know that when the producer names the tune, the consumer has got to dance.”

Our modern prophet, Gil Scott Heron – a Southern man – has since gone to his reward – may he rest in peace.

His prophetic lyrics, however, remain as poignantly truthful today as ever.

The truth of his song “B Movie” remains even more point-on today than when he produced & recorded it in 1982.

“What has happened is that in the last 20 years, America has changed from a producer to a consumer. And all consumers know that when the producer names the tune, the consumer has got to dance. That’s the way it is. We used to be a producer – very inflexible at that, and now we are consumers and, finding it difficult to understand. Natural resources and minerals will change your world. The Arabs used to be in the 3rd World. They have bought the 2nd World and put a firm down payment on the 1st one. Controlling your resources we’ll control your world. This country has been surprised by the way the world looks now. They don’t know if they want to be Matt Dillon or Bob Dylan. They don’t know if they want to be diplomats or continue the same policy – of nuclear nightmare diplomacy. John Foster Dulles ain’t nothing but the name of an airport now.” -excerpt from “B Movie,” by Gil Scott Heron, 1982

The Real Reason Gas Costs $4 A Gallon

Categories: Trade, Government

11:23 AM, April 2, 2012

OPEC – Oil & Petroleum Exporting Countries; BILAL QABALAN/AFP/Getty Images

In his latest column for the New York Times Magazine, Adam Davidson cites Gal Luft, an oil expert who dismisses political proposals from the left and the right to lower the price of gas. We asked him to elaborate in the following post.

When in December 2008, 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl asked Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi how much it cost Saudi Arabia to produce one barrel of oil, he didn’t blink: “Probably less than

Gas Prices drop: Saudi Oil output at 30 year high

Have you noticed?

The price you pay for gasoline has dropped.

Why?

It’s quite simple really.

Oil output from Saudi Arabia is at a 30 year high.

Yeah.

It’s exactly like Gil Scott-Heron said on his song 1981 song “B-Movie”:

“What has happened is that in the last 20 years, America has changed from a producer to a consumer.  And all consumers know that when the producer names the tune, the consumer has got to dance.  That’s the way it is.  We used to be a producer – very inflexible at that – and now we are consumers and, finding it difficult to understand.  Natural resources and minerals will change your world. The Arabs used to be in the 3rd World.  They have bought the 2nd World and put a firm down payment on the 1st one.  Controlling your resources will control your world.  This country has been surprised by the way the world looks now.” 

Saudi Arabia Crude Production Rises to Highest in Three Decades

Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, boosted output last month to the most in more than three decades to meet customer demand.

“We produced 10 million and 40 barrels in November because