“My View” from the June 1, 2012 edition of “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer.”
Eliot Spitzer:
“The credit goes to the man in the arena — not to the critic.” Profound words from Teddy Roosevelt, and relevant because of the vapid and superficial critiques we’re hearing from Mitt Romney every day, without any sensible alternatives or proposals or ideas to move us forward.
Yesterday, Romney told CBS News that he’d give the president’s first term an F in foreign policy. Really? An F?
Obama eliminated Osama bin Laden. He decapitated the leadership of al-Qaida, effectively used drone attacks, isolated major terrorist organizations and prevented any terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
Plus he navigated through the Arab Spring with reasonable efficacy, and he re-established the United States as the counterweight in Asia to an emerging China.
And oh, and by the way, he disengaged us, at a reasonable pace, from the Iraq war disaster and created a principled basis for leaving Afghanistan.
And now we learn that Obama mounted a continuing and successful cyber war attack on Iran, thwarting their nuclear ambitions.
An F, you say?
OK, Romney’s running for office. He’s supposed to slam his opponent. But when has Romney ever had a meaningful alternative on foreign policy, or much of anything else?
On the economy, he’s only said he would do the opposite of what Obama has done — a likewise ridiculous mantra in foreign policy as it is in economics.
Romney is running as a candidate of no ideas — not even bad ones.
Does he object to the use of drones? Does he feel we shouldn’t be pursuing a cyber war strategy? Does he think the terrorist organizations are not weakened and a mere shadow of their former selves?
The etch-a-sketch candidate has the nomination in hand: it is now time for him to do more than launch mere bromides at the president.
If he wants to be taken seriously in any conversation about foreign policy, it’s time for him to show up with a game plan.
That’s “My View.”
