Do They Think the Voters Are Idiots?

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney had almost split voters equally earlier this month. After the Republican National Convention (RNC), Romney gained no new votes, and then after the Democratic National Convention (DNC), Obama clearly took the lead. In one poll, Obama edged ahead of Romney 49 to 45 percent, and in another poll, 50 to 44 percent (the rest of the voters remain undecided). The U.S. presidential election history tells us that it has never happened that a candidate who was ahead in mid-September went on to lose the election in November. The polls all had Nixon ahead in 1972, Reagan in 1984, Clinton in 1996, George W. Bush in 2004, and all those went on to win the race to the White House. Romney makes a gaffe every day, in the style of the ‘dish of the day’. His demeaning view of 47 percent of the American people will not be forgotten or forgiven by those intended by the insult. Perhaps it was the pressure of the polls that prompted the Republican candidate to rush to comment on and criticize the position of the Obama administration, regarding the attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. Indeed, he seems to have been looking for a cause that would thrust him forward in the polls, but ended up falling in a trap of his own making instead. Romney said that the statement of the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, which condemned insulting the religious feelings of Muslims, was yet another proof of Barack Obama’s tendency to apologize for American values, adding that there is no justification whatsoever for acts of violence. In reality, the U.S. embassy statement also underscored the importance of safeguarding the freedom of speech as a universal right. But more importantly, that statement had been issued before the attack on the embassy, and was therefore not the result of it. The U.S. Ambassador to Egypt was in Washington at the time, and the administration, following the attack, apologized for nothing, and condemned the attackers very clearly. Romney did not back down from his mistake or withdraw his criticism. Instead, he let his aides continue the campaign on Obama’s foreign policy, and I don’t know whether those aides are insane or think the voters are idiots. These aides were best represented by Richard Williamson, one of Romney’s leading foreign policy advisers. He said that if Romney was president, the deadly protests against the offensive anti-Islam film sweeping the Middle East would not have happened. So what Williamson is saying is that those whose religious feelings were insulted by the film would have stopped, and remembered that the man in the White House is Romney, not Obama or someone else, and would have refrained from any acts of violence for fear of this Romney. Every public opinion poll has shown that a majority of voters trust Obama’s performance in foreign affairs, preferring him to Romney who knows nothing of this policy except his alliance with the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. Romney is in a good position to challenge Obama on the economy, with the continuing financial crisis in the U.S. and across the world. But his position on the economy is not clear. Sen. John Kerry mocked him during the DNC, and urged him to debate himself over which economic policy he wants before debating Obama on television over the economy. I read that Romney, after the failure of his remarks on the attacks against U.S. diplomatic missions to push him forward, has decided to go back to focusing on the economy. Obama will say that he champions the middle class and the poor, and that Romney wants to keep the tax cuts for the rich in place. This is true, but foreign policy remains the strongest point in Obama’s campaign. To be sure, Obama withdrew the U.S. forces from Iraq, and began pulling them out from Afghanistan. He also managed to find and hunt down Osama bin Laden. Obama also wants to be a partner with other countries around the world, and not to unilaterally lead it. This was evident in Libya. After the UN Security Council issued a resolution tasking NATO with the protection of Libyan civilians, Obama allowed Britain and France to lead the campaign against the Gaddafi regime, while the United States played a supporting role. Obama does not want empty heroisms that further weaken his country, economically and militarily. For this reason, his supporters call him No-Drama Obama. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.