The Obama campaign is challenging Mitt Romney to prove during his upcoming trip overseas that his foreign policy positions are more than “sound bites” and “platitudes.”
“Mitt Romney is not engaged on these issues,” said Robert Gibbs, Obama’s former press secretary who now works with the campaign, on Romney’s foreign policy. “Instead of offering specifics he has so far only talked in platitudes.”
Gibbs and other Obama aides spoke to reporters on a conference call Monday to cast Romney as inexperienced on foreign policy and discredit his upcoming trip to England, Israel and Poland as a mere fundraising swing.
“This really isn’t the time for anyone to be playing politics with our foreign policy in the [Middle East],” said Colin Kahl, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.
Kahl challenged Romney to explain how he would handle a nuclear Iran and to expand on the meaning of his recent statements that he would do the “opposite” of Obama concerning U.S. relations with Israel.
“All we’ve gotten from Romney to this point is tough talk,” Kahl said.
Asked to address Republican criticisms that Obama has not visited Israel as president — his last trip was as a candidate in 2008 — Kahl said, “It’s relevant to point out that [former president Ronald Reagan] never visited Israel.”
Former President George W. Bush didn’t visit the country until the last year of his second term, he added.
The relationship between the U.S. and Israel “shouldn’t be judged by a travel itinerary,” he declared. Obama would travel to Israel in his second term if reelected, he said.
The Romney campaign responded Monday by accusing Obama of diminishing weakening U.S. standing globally.
“In no region of the world is our country’s influence any stronger than it was four years ago,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams. “President Obama has failed to restore our economy, is weakening our military with devastating defense cuts, and has diminished our moral authority.”
