Bugs Bunny "What A Maroon!" Award IV

Once upon a time the Republican Party was noted for containing within its ranks of presidential contenders individuals who were well rooted in the realities of international politics. Even if the potential candidate himself was not intimate with the ins and outs of foreign and defense policy, he was typically well connected with those who were. And, more importantly, was willing and able to both listen and learn.

Those days are gone. Long gone.

The Republican primacy in foreign affairs died with the emergence of George W. Bush, an amateur at best in the international affairs arena. This amateur, it was hoped, would be redeemed from the worst effects of his ignorance by the presence of presumably adult supervisors such as Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell. As events proved, not only was George W. immune to any wise counsel which any of these men might have given, but, worse, most of the presumed adults proved to be every bit as adolescent in their approach to the world as the president.

Now, unfortunately, it appears that the Republicans have gone downhill from even the abysmal level of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld years. There are no foreign policy mavens (to put it as politely as possible) among the crowd of names mentioned as possible contenders for the Republican nomination in 2012. Not a single one of the "names," not Haley Barbour, not Mitch Daniels, not Tim Pawlenty and certainly not Sarah Palin has a meaningful word one to say on matters of foreign and defense policy.

As a result of this intellectual deficit which rivals that of the US budget, it is not shocking that one time governor Mitt Romney has made an effort to portray himself as a deep thinker on defense and foreign affairs. It is this attempt which earns him a very well deserved Bugs Bunny Memorial "What a Maroon!" Award for this week.

Oh, how the editors of the WaPo must have chortled with glee when they provided the rope, er, no, the space so that Mr Romney might hang himself. On Tuesday this week the former chief executive of Massachusetts opined that the new START with Russia was President Obama's "worst foreign policy mistake."

Wowie! Zowie! That's a mouthful. The "worst" mistake? Really, now, Mr Romney, and just what do you consider the president's policy regarding the Iranian nuclear weapons project to have been? A success? A mild mistake?

Or, Mr Romney, how do you rate Mr Obama's treatment of Israel? A glittering example of creative diplomacy leading inevitably to Mideast peace? A comedy of errors? A travesty?

Then there is the small matter of Mr Obama not having either a coherent foreign policy or even the awareness that he is lacking one. Tell us, Mr Romney, from your perch high atop the foreign policy pinnacle, how do you estimate this? An oversight? A fine example of flexibility, a sort of diplomatic equivalent of evolution in action?

With blunders of the highest magnitude such as these, why pick on the one aspect of Mr Obama's Crusade For A Better, Gentler World, which is not, repeat, not a glaring error? While ReSTART is not perfect, it is a step in the correct direction--the direction of basing nuclear deterrence on a finite rather than a mutually assured destruction basis.

While it is to be expected that John Kerry disagrees most vehemently with the Romney assessment of ReSTART, it is almost a surprise that Senator Lugar does the same in words which rival--or perhaps surpass--those of Senator Kerry in vitriol. Both senators were right in their criticism of Romney--and the tone in which the criticism was delivered.

The Romney Objections to ReSTART are based on misapprehensions, misinterpretations, factual perversion, and, perhaps unintentional, mendacity. The new agreement with the Russians does not leave the US at a disadvantage. It does not place the US in a position of strategic inferiority to the Kremlin. It does not place our European allies at greater risk. And, most importantly, it does not give the Kremlin a veto power over any and all efforts we might make in the area of ballistic missile defense.

It is both appalling and a tad pathetic that a man who is generally considered to be a leading contender for the Republican nomination in two years delivered himself of such a sophomoric treatise as Mr Romney did. Considering the full panoply of foreign policy missteps, mistakes, errors, and blunders committed by the Clueless One In The Oval, there is no need to invent a blunder.

If Mr Romney does genuinely think that ReSTART is the "greatest foreign policy mistake" of the Obama administration to date, he is so out-to-lunch, so divorced from the real world, that he disqualifies himself from running for president. However, this view and its expression does earn Mitt Romney the What A Maroon! Award and that is consolation enough.