by D.J. Rippert
What a difference two years make. In the run up to the 2012 election Barack Obama and Mitt Romney debated foreign affairs. Obama had recently been caught making an offhand comment over an open mike to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Obama promised the Russian that he (Obama) would have “more flexibility” with Russia after the election. Obama used the subsequent televised debate to ridicule Romney for considering Russia a geopolitical foe.
The liberal reaction. The liberal screech-o-sphere went into overdrive after the debate taking Romney to task for his obvious stupidity in considering Russia a potential problem for the United States.
From Mediaite.com:
- “I don’t know what decade this guy’s living in,” MSNBC host Chris Matthews said with a sigh on March 28, 2012. “Is he trying to play Ronald Reagan here, or what?”
- Huffington Post reporter Sam Stein agreed that Romney’s statement was evidence of an “antiquated worldview.” He fretted further about how Romney, should he become president, would enter the office having severely complicated America’s bilateral relations with Moscow given his carelessly provocative statement.
- I can appreciate why the Romney campaign would try to make Obama’s “hot mic” story interesting, but the problem is the former governor just doesn’t have any real policy chops in this area. He’s out of his depth, and struggles when the subject takes center stage. (Rachael Maddow)
- Calling Romney’s comments “a throwback to the Cold War,” [Andrea] Mitchell insisted that “we work with Russia all the time.” “Hardly an ally but certainly not an adversary,” she declared.
Crimea river. Russia, under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, has effectively occupied Crimea. He has armed rebels in Ukraine and those rebels used his arms to shoot down a passenger airliner. The Russian backed rebels have prevented investigators from seeing the crash site or even recovering all the bodies of those who they murdered. Today, U.S. and NATO countries are insisting that they will defend NATO countries with military force if confronted by Russia.
The pet theories of liberalism. The next time some liberal advances one of their pet theories on say … immigration reform, global warming or medicaid expansion replay the clip from the 2012 debate. Then, replay the MSNBC clips of various liberal media stooges ridiculing Romney for his warnings about Russia. As my father used to say, “Liberals are often wrong but never in doubt.”