UK: Romney's foriegn foray

The Guardian

Romney's foreign policy misstep draws unwanted attention to key advisers

Perhaps realising he can't win the election campaigning solely on the economy, Mitt Romney ventured into an area where Obama is strongest – only to emerged badly bruised.

Ewen MacAskill
While Americans are primarily concerned about unemployment, they also seek reassurance that a candidate is up to the job of being commander-in-chief. It is the concern that Hillary Clinton tapped into during the 2008 campaign when she put out an attack ad against Barack Obama asking who Americans would want answering the 3am crisis call to the White House.

Romney has been widely judged to have failed that test this week, not just by the Democrats and the media, but also by foreign policy experts and even many Republicans who are maintaining a tactful silence. By launching his ill-timed and inaccurate attempt on the administration's Middle East policy, he looked like he was trying to score political points while a crisis was unfolding in which Americans had been killed.

Read it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/14/mitt-romney-foreign-policy

Germany: US movie sparks violent protests spread in Arab world

Der Spiegel

The World from Berlin 'Obama's Middle East Policy Is in Ruins'

REUTERS

There were clashes between police and protesters in Cairo on Friday.

US embassies in the Muslim world were on high alert Friday following days of violent protests against an anti-Islam film. Germany, too, closed several embassies in fear of attacks. Some German commentators argue that the violence shows that Obama's Middle East policies have failed.

Read it at Der Spiegel
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/german-press-review-on-middle-east-violence-against-us-embassies-a-855835.html

Sarah Palin vs. Colonel Tim Collins

PJ:  It is becoming obvious that Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Ailes care more about ratings and rantings than respectful and intelligent dialogue.  How else can you explain their promotion of Sarah Palin's constant hate filled, deranged and dangerous rhetoric.  


The three year old vs the commanding officer

" we are entering iraq to free a people, show respect for them. iraq is steeped in history. it is the site of the garden of eden, of the great flood, and the birthplace of abraham. tread lightly there. you will see things that no man could pay to see, and you will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous, and upright people than the iraqis."  Colonel Tim Collins 2003

2012--" we have to ask ourselves, i wish reporters would ask our president, how much longer can we afford to spill our blood and treasure to promote democracy in places that do not have any values for civilized societies."  Sarah Palin 2012

Watch it at MSNBC
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/martin-bashir/49038668#49038668

A sad state of affairs

PJ:  What a sad state of affairs....  How we all long for the days of the tough interviewer who got to the bottom of things...who forced out the truth for the benefit of their viewers.  This was during the days before Fox News.  This was before the mainstream media cowered, afraid of their responsibilities lest they be called biased.  This was before newsrooms concentrated more on ratings than reporting.  This was before the likes of Sarah Palin* would appear as an 'expert' on anything on a major news outlet.  

So here we have something unique in today's America journalism:  A reporter, doing what a reporter is supposed to do.

* Speaking of Mrs. Palin...if she thought that Katie Couric was tough, I wonder how she would have managed an interview with Norah O'Donnell!

Mediaite

Norah O’Donnell Teaches TV Journos Another Lesson With Rob Portman Stuffage

Video

by Tommy Christopher

Former Chief White House Correspondent and newly-minted CBS This Morning co-host Norah O’Donnell has been on fire lately, holding a veritable clinic on how to interview dishonest politicians that her mainstream media colleagues would do well to study. In the latest example of this, O’Donnell abandoned the current media fashion of ignoring lies (or presenting the truth as just another counter-argument), and pursued Sen. Rob Portman‘s (R-OH) disinformation on the recent violence in Libya like a Terminator with OCD.

What O’Donnell has been doing recently shouldn’t seem as remarkable as it is, but good old-fashioned feet to the fire followup is a sadly dying art, especially in television news. Interviewers either let lies and misinformation slip by because they need to hit all their prepared questions before time’s up, or because they’re numb to post-truth politics, or they present the facts in asterisk fashion before moving on to allow more lies to spew forth.

Read it and watch the video at Mediaite:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/norah-odonnell-teaches-tv-journos-another-lesson-with-rob-portman-stuffage/ 

UK: Romney's Obama attack smirk

The Guardian

Mitt Romney's ill-judged attack on Obama over Libya backfires

The Republican nominee's smirk after remarks on Libya was trivial – yet spoke volumes about his fitness for the presidency

• 
• • Ana Marie Cox

The image of a smirking Mitt Romney as he walked away from his press conference regarding the terrorist attacks in Libya is his John Kerry-windsurfing moment. Much as with the Kerry image, critics are making too much of a fleeting moment: Romney partisans are correct to point out that Romney's expression is only that – not a deep-seated reflection of an inner belief.

                                     *

But sometimes, the wink isn't just a wink. It's a tic, an unthinking habit that won't go away. The Romney reaction to the news out of Libya suggests something even more dangerous: a habit of unthinking. As Fred Exley put it, in his classic A Fan's Notes, bemoaning the latent cynicism that allows good people to excuse themselves for doing bad things:

"A wink eventually becomes a twitch, the twitch a sign of some inner disturbance.

UK: Obama's record better than GOP rhetoric

The Economist

End-of-term report

The president’s record is better than the woes of America’s economy suggests

NOT since 1933 had an American president taken the oath of office in an economic climate as grim as it was when Barack Obama put his left hand on the Bible in January 2009. The banking system was near collapse, two big car manufacturers were sliding towards bankruptcy; and employment, the housing market and output were spiralling down.

Hemmed in by political constraints, presidents typically have only the slightest influence over the American economy. Mr Obama, like Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 and Ronald Reagan in 1981, would be an exception. Not only would his decisions be crucial to the recovery, but he also had a chance to shape the economy that emerged. As one adviser said, the crisis should not be allowed to go to waste.

Did Mr Obama blow it? Nearly four years later, voters seem to think so: approval of his economic management is near rock-bottom, the single-biggest obstacle to his re-election. This, however, is not a fair judgment on Mr Obama’s record, which must consider not just the results but the decisions he took, the alternatives on offer and the obstacles in his way. Seen in that light, the report card is better. His handling of the crisis and recession were impressive. Unfortunately, his efforts to reshape the economy have often misfired. And America’s public finances are in a dire state.  

Read it at The Economist:
http://www.economist.com/node/21561909

 

Canada: Romney heckled

National Post

Romney heckled as he attempts to soften stance on Libya response

Lee-Anne Goodman, Associated Press

 The eruption of anti-American turmoil in the Middle East poses challenges for both U.S. president Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney, with both men facing tough questions about their foreign policy credentials.

Mr. Romney was still on the hot seat Thursday for his assertion that the Obama administration sympathized with the forces storming Middle East U.S. embassies this week, while the president was facing even tougher, more substantive questions.

Read it at the National Post:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/14/romney-heckled-as-he-attempts-to-soften-stance-on-libya-response/