Romney campaign warns of "Soviet" threat, talks about "Czechoslovakia"!

[Landslide Lyndon]

Must be part of the strategy to win the youth vote.

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/04/romney-campaign-brackets-biden-foreign-policy-speech-by-warning-of-soviet-threat.php?ref=fpa

Romney and his surrogates have revealed an ongoing Cold War fixation. Former Reagan Navy Secretary John Lehman and former Bush administration Ambassador Pierre Prosper, on Thursday derailed Romney messaging in a conference call with reporters by raising the specter of the “Soviet Union” and slamming Obama for not protecting Czechoslovakia — a country that was peacefully dissolved in 1993 and now exists as the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Obama is “withdrawing from leading the free world in maintaining stability around the world,” Lehman said. “What Obama calls ‘leading from behind.’”
One of the worst examples, according to Lehman, is happening at the top of the world.
“We’re seeing the Soviets pushing into the Arctic with no response from us. In fact, the only response is to announce the early retirement of the last remaining icebreaker.”

Prosper warned Obama was abandoning America’s eastern European allies — some of which haven’t existed for decades.

“You know, Russia is another example where we give and Russia gets and we get nothing in return,” Prosper said. “The United States abandoned its missile defense sites in Poland and Czechoslovakia, yet Russia does nothing but obstruct us, or efforts in Iran and Syria.”

[Yank2133]

Talk about dating yourself.........

[Cory]

To be fair, people often times say Czechoslovakia when they mean to say the Czech Republic. Also, I think he deliberately refereed to the Russians as the "Soviets" to raise old Cold War fears about Russian influence.

[Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The Soviet part is deliberate. It is basically claiming that Russia is gunning around like the good old days and Obama is rolling over for them.


As for Czechoslovakia, it rolls off the tongue far easier then "the Czech Republic" and probably just slipped out.

[IDS Legislator Alfred F. Jones]

It's still dishonest to refer to Russians as 'the Soviets'.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

... ever heard of politics?

[Senator North Carolina Yankee]

It's still dishonest to refer to Russians as 'the Soviets'.

What do you think most "campaigning" is?

[crypto-fascist superhero]

Calling Russia "the Soviets" is a fairly common slip of the tongue for people who grew up during the Cold War - my dad does it all the time (and yes, he's aware the Soviet Union is no more).

[Mr. Morden]

link

The key, I believe, to Iran is pressure through the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is supplying much of the equipment that Iran, I believe, most likely is using to set itself along the path of developing nuclear weapons. We need to use that leverage with the Soviet Union and it may require us to buying the equipment the Soviet Union was ultimately going to sell to Iran to prevent Iran from them developing nuclear weapons.

Howard Dean, December 2003

[Old Europe]

Well, as long as he doesn't start to refer to Germany as "the Nazis"...

[Proud Lieberal from Northeast]

Calling Russia "the Soviets" is a fairly common slip of the tongue for people who grew up during the Cold War - my dad does it all the time (and yes, he's aware the Soviet Union is no more).

Funny. In my part of the world, where people older than me actually remembers the communism, I haven't heard anyone calling Russia "the Soviets". Not to mention Czechoslovakia stuff, lol.

[Simfan34]

People here speak of Czechoslovakia all the time, which is odd especially considering that a good deal of my peers, who use the term, were not even born while it was extant... I suppose many have been taught they have "Czechoslovakian" backgrounds and thus think in those terms. In any case, "Czech Republic" is an odd term to me, but the alternative "Czechia" seems even odder to Anglophone ears, which is bizarre considering almost every other language uses its equivalent when speaking of the country. Why has this become the case?

Soviet Union... perhaps this is his Palin moment.

[ag]

Funny. In my part of the world, where people older than me actually remembers the communism, I haven't heard anyone calling Russia "the Soviets".

Because in your part of the world, they know Russia )

You know, my grandma lived a long life. So, by the end, she was, actually, calling Moscow streets by their current names - when everybody else had to re-learn them anew. She had never switched in the first place: Marx Prospect for her had always been Hunters' Row )

[Beet]

These gaffes won't go over well in Leningrad. You don't hear them saying "Soviet" in Bombay or Peking.

[retromike22]

To be fair, OLD people often times say Czechoslovakia when they mean to say the Czech Republic. Also, I think he deliberately refereed to the Russians as the "Soviets" to raise old people's Cold War fears about Russian influence.

[The Mikado]

To be fair, OLD people often times say Czechoslovakia when they mean to say the Czech Republic. Also, I think he deliberately refereed to the Russians as the "Soviets" to raise old people's Cold War fears about Russian influence.

I don't know about that.  Like Simfan, I've also heard a lot of people in their 20s say "Czechoslovakia" rather than "Czech Republic."

[True Federalist]

Part of the problem is thar Czechia is too similar to Chechnya to ever catch on.

[Stranger in a strange land]

As for Czechoslovakia, it rolls off the tongue far easier then "the Czech Republic" and probably just slipped out.

No, it really doesn't, though admittedly it does sound cooler.

[True Federalist]

These gaffes won't go over well in Leningrad. You don't hear them saying "Soviet" in Bombay or Peking.

While not what you meant, Leningrad Oblast has retained its name, a Bombay, New York, exists as do the asteroids 2045 Peking and 2046 Leningrad.

[The Mikado]

These gaffes won't go over well in Leningrad. You don't hear them saying "Soviet" in Bombay or Peking.

No, but the people in Paris say "Pékin," while those in Madrid say "Pekín," and the people in Rome say "Pechino."  I wonder when China is going to tell them to get with the times?

[I Can't Get That Sound You Make, Out Of My Head]

Czechoslovakia, even if it is factually incorrect (because Slovakia's now its own country) sounds better than the Czech Republic.

Calling Russia the Soviet Union is a bit of a fail though, however this is coming from someone that was born after the cold war.

[ag]

These gaffes won't go over well in Leningrad. You don't hear them saying "Soviet" in Bombay or Peking.

In Leningrad province? Or at Leningrad station? Why? What's the problem?

And I will certainly insist on saying Bombay till I die )

BTW, in Russian it's Пекин. Beijing is just a way to transliterate - and you don't do this consistently. Or else, it would have been Taibei (same character is involved, means "North").

The problem w/ Czechoslovakia, though, isn't a name change: it's a different country.