Vice President Biden gave a foreign policy address at NYU this morning, which, as you could probably guess, included numerous references to the fact that Osama bin Laden is no longer alive. But Biden also floated a new addition to the campaign’s OBL-centric foreign policy message by warning that a Mitt Romney presidency would be a rerun of the George W. Bush years.
“[Romney] takes us back to the failed policies that President Obama has dug us out of,” said Biden. “He would take us back to dangerous and discredited policy that would…make America less secure.”
The bulk of Biden’s speech was focused on attacking Romney. But it was full of apparent contradictions: Romney is too much of a hard-liner, but also can’t be counted on to make tough decisions. Romney is too inexperienced, and yet Obama was fully prepared in 2008. Romney has no interest in foreign policy and would outsource decisions to the State Department, and yet he’s also a dangerous ideologue who is “mired in a Cold War mindset.”
The speech illustrated the difficult line the Obama campaign will have to walk on its foreign policy message. It will have to simultaneously tout its accomplishments, which have practically all been achieved through the continuation (and escalation) of robust, Bush-era policies, while attacking Romney as Bush redux.
Yes, Obama has succeeded at killing a large number of al-Qaeda targets – but he did this by ramping up the drone program. Yes, Obama was able to locate and kill Osama bin Laden – but he did this by using intelligence and gathering methods put into place by the Bush administration. Yes, Obama has increased Iran’s isolation in the world – but only because hawks in Congress strong-armed him into implementing sanctions that he originally opposed.
Biden had to argue today that Romney would be too meek and indecisive to accomplish these things, but was also so hawkish and ideological that he would lead the U.S. into dangerous conflicts. It was a disjointed message, and one that didn’t draw much applause from the audience full of NYU students at the College Democrat event.
If Obama used intelligence put in place by the Bush administration, that shows that the United States is a single country. We are supposed to argue, since that is part of the process of finding out what is accurate. Our differences should strengthen us, not weaken us. nEach party is fighting for the title of Party of Hate. That is not the way to conduct an election.
Really? The Republican are fighting for the title of the Party of Hate? That is frankly ridiculous. Obama and the Democrats use every opportunity to portray Republicans as disloyal, hearltess, greedy idiots. The truth is Obama and Democrats are abject liars, yet the Republicans don't really say so. But even if they did, the fact that each side calls each other names (which they don't, because the Republicans are too afraid to do so) does not mean that each side is equally wrong, any more so than the fact that two children are fighitng means that they are both wrong–the frequent but stupid assumption many "grown ups" make when they witness a child altercation. Sometimes one side really is right and one really is wrong.