Will Mitt run on torture?

[Douglas Carpenter]

His advisers want him to bring waterboarding back. Challenging Obama on torture might be his debate surprise

By Alex Pareene


(Credit: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File; Salon)

It seems likely that a President Mitt Romney would rescind the executive order issued by President Barack Obama outlawing torture. His own policy advisers have told him to do so, according to a memo obtained by the New York Times. (Mitt Romney’s advisers are doing everything they can to encourage the liberal debate over the morality of supporting Obama in the face of his miserable civil liberties record.)

Americans are more accepting of torture now than they were when America was doing it.

In an October 2007 Rasmussen poll, 27 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should torture prisoners captured in the fight against terrorism, while 53 percent said it should not. In my YouGov poll, 41 percent said they would be willing to use torture — a gain of 14 points — while 34 percent would not, a decline of 19 points.

It gets worse: More Americans also support specific torture techniques, including waterboarding, than did in 2005. (Bush’s favorable ratings are gradually rising, too.) It’s not a large number of Americans who have suddenly come around on torturing prisoners, but Romney’s looking for any advantage he can get, and he’s shameless. Romney has likely already decided to bring torture back once he’s in office, so the only calculation is between waiting until he’s won to announce it or trying to use it for political advantage now.

And honestly, as awful as campaign coverage of the ensuing torture “debate” would be, it would at least draw into the open what the Republican Party has so far been oddly quiet about: That the next Republican president will almost certainly bring torture back, because Bush made it GOP policy.

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/01/will_mitt_run_on_torture/

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[madokie]

1. How do you win hearts and minds?

with kindness not with torture. They know this so all that can be deduced from his tidbit is some one on his team is un-American. I guess terrorism is big money to some people. Crying ass shame the mess we're in today. All around the world too, not just in a few places but pretty much globe wise.