Romney tells Israeli newspaper: The Arab Spring is Obama's fault

[Mr. Morden]

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=5207

So sayeth Romney:

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So if Obama had been more like Bush, Mubarak would have offered free and fair elections without a fight, and they wouldn't have elected Islamists?

[Mr. Morden]

Imagine the outrage if a Democratic Presidential nominee was lobbing these kind of lame attacks on a Republican President's foreign policy while overseas. The media would destroy them.

To be fair, this interview was conducted when Romney was still in the US, just before he left for the UK.  But the newspaper is only publishing it now, when he's about to arrive in Israel.

[Mr. Morden]

Romney's not allowed to have that view?

Of course he's allowed to have it.  It just strikes me as utterly bizarre.  First the GOP insists that the Arab Spring is a vindication of Bush's "freedom agenda" (as put forth in his second inaugural address), but now that Arab Spring has toppled some dictators and we have democratic elections, the fact that some of those elections have brought Islamists to power means that the Arab Spring was actually bad, and if only Obama had asked Mubarak for democratic elections nicely, he would have said yes....and the people wouldn't have elected Islamists?  Explain to me how that would have happened.

What seems to have happened here is that Romney was trying to appeal to his audience in this interview (Israelis and Americans who are nervous about the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt), but couldn't find the right way to thread the needle so that he could agree with them without making it sound like democracy in the Arab world is bad.

[Mr. Morden]

Romney's not allowed to have that view?

Of course he's allowed to have it.  It just strikes me as utterly bizarre.  First the GOP insists that the Arab Spring is a vindication of Bush's "freedom agenda" (as put forth in his second inaugural address), but now that Arab Spring has toppled some dictators and we have democratic elections, the fact that some of those elections have brought Islamists to power means that the Arab Spring was actually bad, and if only Obama had asked Mubarak for democratic elections nicely, he would have said yes....and the people wouldn't have elected Islamists?  Explain to me how that would have happened.

What seems to have happened here is that Romney was trying to appeal to his audience in this interview (Israelis and Americans who are nervous about the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt), but couldn't find the right way to thread the needle so that he could agree with them without making it sound like democracy in the Arab world is bad.

No that's not it. It's good to have free elections. It's bad to elect Islamists. Just because someone is elected to office doesn't mean that the people made the right choice. It just means they won "fair and square." Freedom in the Arab world is good as long as it stays as "freedom." The way I view it is as a work in progress. I don't think Romney would be wrong to call it that either. He's free to take my words too. In politics the bad guys can win.

You're arguing against a point that I didn't make.  I'm specifically talking about how Romney suggested that if Obama had pressed Mubarak for democratic elections, that a) he would have agreed, and b) they wouldn't have elected Islamists.  Explain how that's at all realistic.

[Mr. Morden]

Welcome to politics where one politician makes things sound so easy in order to belittle his opponent. Both parties do that.

Welcome to the Atlas forum, where we discuss the foolishness of such dumb accusations, like the one Romney made here.  

[Mr. Morden]

Welcome to politics where one politician makes things sound so easy in order to belittle his opponent. Both parties do that.

Welcome to the Atlas forum, where we discuss the foolishness of such dumb accusations, like the one Romney made here.  

What was the accusation?

The accusation that Obama caused the Arab Spring, and led to the election of Islamists in the Arab world, by not simply asking dictators like Mubarak to hold free elections.

[Mr. Morden]

Welcome to politics where one politician makes things sound so easy in order to belittle his opponent. Both parties do that.

Welcome to the Atlas forum, where we discuss the foolishness of such dumb accusations, like the one Romney made here.  

What was the accusation?

The accusation that Obama caused the Arab Spring, and led to the election of Islamists in the Arab world, by not simply asking dictators like Mubarak to hold free elections.

No one accused him of that.

You seem to be arguing in circles here.  If we go back to the initial Romney quote: "President [George W.] Bush urged [deposed Egyptian President] Hosni Mubarak to move toward a more democratic posture, but President Obama abandoned the freedom agenda and we are seeing today a whirlwind of tumult in the Middle East in part because these nations did not embrace the reforms that could have changed the course of their history, in a more peaceful manner."

What, specifically, do you think Romney is accusing Obama of doing here?  A minute ago you said "Maybe Mubarak would've agreed but we'll never know", to suggest that you understood this to be Romney accusing Obama of not asking Mubarak to hold free elections, but now it sounds like you're backtracking.

[Mr. Morden]

The headline here is slightly more provocative than Romney's actual words, but I'm limited in the number of characters I can fit into a headline, so I had to give the best summary I could.  Polnut just gave what I think is a pretty accurate summation of Romney's words.