All Mitt Romney needs to do in the next debate Monday is go through this list of blunders and the president will be reduced, once again, to stammering through ponderous answers.
1. Benghazi security
Four Americans, including a U.S. ambassador, are dead after being sent into harm’s way in service to their country without adequate concern given for their safety. Even though hundreds of incidents occurred in the past year against diplomatic missions in Libya, the State Department stripped security assets from the Benghazi consulate, in part, to be able to tout the success of toppling the Gaddafi regime by claiming normalcy had returned.
2. AWOL at 3 a.m.
All Mitt Romney needs to do at the upcoming debate is to stare Obama in the eye and say, “Mr. President. In the days leading up to the Benghazi terror raid you missed numerous national security briefings, and the day following the attack you flew off to Las Vegas for a political fundraiser. When your 3 a.m. call came, you were AWOL.” Watch Obama dissemble on the stage.
3. Benghazi lies
Even after last week’s debate, the president has a lot of explaining to do in regard to Libya. How could Ambassador Susan Rice and White House spokesman Jay Carney insist for days after the attack that it was a spontaneous mob inflamed by a movie trailer mocking Islam? Not only did the terrorists come heavily armed and worked with well-coordinated precision, later reports said there wasn’t even a demonstration at the consulate before the raid.
4. Too busy for world leaders
The annual U.N. General assembly meeting brings world leaders to New York, where besides addressing the international body, officials have an opportunity to meet with each other. Indeed, it is a long-standing tradition for the president to hold bilateral meetings during their visit. Obama addressed the body but eschewed any additional meetings, despite urgent requests from other leaders.
5. Israel outrage
Obama has done everything he can to damage the United States’ long-standing relationship with Israel, which is increasingly seeing its existence threatened by Iran’s nuclear ambitions and by the rise to power of Islamist radicals across the region following the Arab Spring. But Obama snubbed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, has battled Israel over settlements, and offended Israeli officials by urging a return to 1967 borders.
6. Russia reset
The Obama administration’s famed “reset” of relations with Russia has mostly reset the world into hostile opposing camps. Nowhere better is this seen than with the Syria crisis where Russia and China have teamed up in the United Nations to block the United States and the West from implementing tough sanctions against the Assad regime.
7. Allies rebuffed
Eastern European nations are unhappy that Obama caved into Russia on canning the deployment of a missile defense system. Israel believes they are being tossed to the wolves of the Mideast. The “special relationship” with Great Britain has faded. Persian Gulf leaders thought the U.S. was too quick to turn on former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
8. Iran muddle
Iran moves ever closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon but the Obama administration has no real plan to stop Tehran from threatening Israel with annihilation. Obama’s initial strategy-to use his powers of persuasion to convince the hard-core Islamists to see the light-failed miserably. And the watered-down U.N. sanctions imposed on Iran aren’t faring much better. His best opportunity to change the course of history in Iran was missed when he ignored in 2009 the pleas from protesters hoping for a true democracy.
9. Iraq-Afghan wars bungle
Obama policies have managed to bungle matters with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. By not negotiating a status-of-forces agreement with Iraq, the U.S. will have a greatly diminished role in aiding the fledgling democracy to develop and in protecting American interests in the region. In Afghanistan, Obama’s outright declaration of a withdrawal date allows the enemy to wait us out before commencing with their attempt to create a radical Islamist state.
10. Arab Spring backfire
Obama believed that his sincere outreach to the Muslim world would ease tensions and lead the way to solving problems in the Mideast. Yet when the Arab Spring erupted, Obama was on the wrong side of history nearly every step of the way-ignoring Iranian protesters’ urgent pleas-and giving aid and comfort to rebels in Egypt and Libya without regard to their terror leanings. Now Muslims across the world are protesting America, with Obama playing the role of the “Great Satan.”
