The bloody events in Libya on Monday night are another reminder, as if one is ever needed, of how volatile that part of the world remains. It’s also a stark reminder of how quickly the political fortunes of Western leaders can change in that neck of the woods when things go wrong.

President Obama now faces what may be the most serious test of his presidency yet. The violence and protests that ignited in Libya and Cairo over an anti-Islamic film have spread to Yemen, and could engulf the Middle East if cooler heads don’t prevail.

For starters, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was so eager to seize the moment of crisis for political leverage that he scored another huge foreign policy blunder. His grandiose attack on Obama using the same tired line, that Obama is an apologist, has backfired.

Romney accused the Obama administration of apologizing to protestors after they breached the embassy in Benghazi. But as many national and international reports have shown, the sequence of events undercuts Romney’s claim. The National Journal’s account of the timeline makes that point clear.

But Romney and his craven supporters have never let the facts deter them from criticizing the president. This case, however, has even given many Republicans reason to be concerned. Romney not only showed a stunning lack of sensitivity, he’s also proven that he has an amazing lack of foreign policy instincts. More and more, Romney sounds like a relic from the Cold War, and his critiques of Obama don’t resonate with reality.

Meanwhile, describing the situation as explosive is no exaggeration when you look at it in the broader context. And exploiting it for political gain is dangerous. The US has already been involved in a decade of unfunded wars in the region, thanks to President George W. Bush.

Republicans in Congress are now backpedaling on their votes to cut military spending to reduce the deficit: a vote that even Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan seems to have forgotten in an expedient case of amnesia.
And let’s not forget that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is busy wooing Romney while pushing Obama into a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

It’s one thing listening to the bizarre ramblings of actor and director Clint Eastwood and his chair, but if Americans don’t disregard the desperate political puffery coming out of the Romney camp, we’ll be waking up to gasoline at $8 a gallon.

And we’ll spend another decade building roads, schools, and hospitals over there, while ignoring them here.

This article appears in Show Time: The Rochester Fringe Festival.

I was born and raised in the Rochester area, but I lived in California and Florida before returning home about 12 years ago. I'm a vegetarian and live with my husband and our three pugs. I cover education,...

6 replies on “Arab spring may be Romney’s fall”

  1. Romney should be more knowledgeable of foreign policy since he knows every corner of the world he can hide his money! He’s already has international financial ties which run all the way from Switzerland to the Cayman Islands. Never mind that he’s never been involved with politics outside of the US- only his millions of dollars have. Read about the role of Mitt’s money and his Magic Mormon Underwear are playing in the polls at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/05… where you can see for yourself the true power of both on display in full color!

  2. Speaking of “bizarre rumblings ” that’s pretty much what this slanted column is. Romney was right to speak out against Obama’s failed foreign policy. About time! Obama is just the grand appeaser and is no leader.

  3. This blog is based on the assumption that the average voter is too intelligent to be swayed by the rhetoric of the Right. But where do we see signs of such electoral brilliance?

    Misinformation, attack ads and outright lies are used by the Republicans because such tactics work ! Those who actually are too smart to fall for this GOP’bilge weren’t going to vote for Richy Rich Romney anyway, and those who were will only have their prejudices reinforced by such ranting.

    That leaves the 5%+ of the voters who are too uninvolved to have an opinion (the ones the media politely calls “independents”) who unfortunately are going to be the ones to decide this election. Since they haven’t been motivated to take a position based on the facts to date it seems likely that their decision will be determined by last minute hype, emotion and scare tactics. And NOBODY can hype the emotions and scare the pants off the ignorant like the Republicans.

    Romney and his handlers know what they’re doing when the distort Obama’s policies and actions. Not because they believe what they’re saying, but because they know that what they’re saying will put him in the White House on Jan. 20, 2013.

  4. Heh.

    There were no Marines protecting our Ambassador to Libya despite State Department warnings about violence and kidnappings in the Benghazi, and despite knowledge of Al Qaeda’s growing activity there.

    But this is somehow about Romney.

    The President condemned Mitt Romney far more harshly than the rioters and murders, taking another day to get around to condemning them.

    But this is somehow about Romney.

    Despite the fact that the allegedly provocative movie had been out for months, and that the riots were organized and organized in advance, the media continues to condemn the Coptic Christians who promoted it, even despite the fact that the attack on the consulate in Libya essentially USED the riots as a cover for the attack.

    But, right, this is about Romney.

    The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently called an American civilian to ask him to stop exercising his first amendment rights.

    Romney Romney Romney.

    It wasn’t that long ago that John Kerry was routinely attacking Bush on his handling of Iraq, and the media happily jumped into the fray to fuel the criticism. Now, and City Newpaper seems no different than the other media lemmings in this regard, instead of actually investigating and analyzing Obama’s handling of foreign policy, a Romney gaffe is all they can see.

    Nothing but the same old partisan hacker and message management at play here. So much for journalism.

  6. Trying to blame the U-turn Obama’s “Arab Spring” took is laughable. And pathetic. Timmy, please spare us your biased drivel.

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