Romney go home: The final judgement on Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney's travels abroad was largely thumbs down. The Obama team gloated over Romney's gaffes in London, Israel and Poland, while the Romney staff seemed to make things even worse.
On the final day of the hectic journey that had been intended to polish Romney's foreign credentials before the November elections, his stressed-out press aide Rick Gorka blew his top. "Kiss my ass, this is a holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect," Gorka snapped at reporters in Warsaw who were shouting questions at Romney on Tuesday about his missteps in London and Israel. Romney was approaching the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to lay a wreath and ignored the shouts.
The scene, symptomatic of Romney's foreign debut as he tries to oust US President Barack Obama, was the last in a series of stumbles that dominated front pages in the US during his overseas trip. Yes, he managed to push Obama out of the limelight for six days, but not with the headlines he had envisioned. US newspapers derided the Republican for his mistakes. "Mitt Romney Should Have Stayed Home," wrote the newspaper Politico.
It began in London, after Romney said in an interview before arriving there that there were "disconcerting" questions about Olympics security and Britain's ability to hold successful games. After meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron in Downing Street, he tried to backtrack, but the damage was done.
In Israel, Romney provoked the Arabic world by calling Jerusalem the capital of Israel - a position in line with that of the Israeli government but out of step with the rest of the world, which keeps its embassies in Tel Aviv, including that of the United States. The Republican also invited charges of racism with his reported comment at a private fundraiser in Jerusalem that Israel's economic superiority over the Palestinians was the result of cultural differences, without any mention of Israel's deep trade restrictions on the occupied territory.
"It is a racist statement, and this man doesn't realise that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation," said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. In Poland, Romney had moments of triumph as Nobel Prize winner and former Polish president Lech Walesa, a one-time feisty union leader who helped unravel Soviet rule, sang his praises and said the two men think the same: "Governor Romney, get your success, be successful."
But the union-dominated group that was Walesa's power base, Solidarity, distanced itself from their former leader's remarks, noting that it had learned from American trade unionists "that Mitt Romney supported attacks on trade unions and employees' rights." Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who is married to an American, remained neutral, saying that "Poland has excellent ties with the United States, regardless of which American party is in power."
For the 65-year-old Romney, the overseas journey was a wake-up call for the rigors of the job he is pursuing, the White House said. "When American presidents, American senators and congressmen and would-be leaders go abroad, what they say is placed under a magnifying glass and it carries great impact," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in reaction to reporters' questions.
He noted that "getting it right matters greatly to America's standing in the world and to the successful execution of American foreign policy." The New York Times called the trip "not encouraging," and even the conservative Wall Street Journal found little reason to praise Romney's performance, saying only that Romney proved himself a friend of Israel.
The Democratic campaign had harsher words. Obama advisor Robert Gibbs called Romney's efforts "an embarrassing disaster" that contrasted sharply with Obama's trip abroad as a candidate in 2008, when he held spellbound a crowd of tens of thousands in a speech in Berlin's historic centre.
Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago and another close confidante of Obama, said Romney had "made a mess of being a tourist." "At every level, this trip has shown more of how Mitt Romney is not ready for the Oval Office," Emanuel said. Romney may have hoped to impress US voters with the trip. A key supporter, Sheldon Adelson, for example, has started up a new group to woo away Jewish voters who normally vote Democratic.
But if Romney was bidding for Polish Catholic votes, he may have done better to visit their population centres in the US Midwest. More to the point, Romney's trip was a major fundraiser, with special events with American supporters in London and Jerusalem. In Israel alone, he raised 1 million dollars, according to the Washington Post.