Romney says U.S. should not negotiate with Taliban

[DCBob]

MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney said on Monday the United States should not negotiate with the Taliban and he criticized the Obama administration for efforts to broker secret talks with the Afghan insurgents.

Romney, who has won the first two Republican contests in the race to pick a nominee to face Democratic President Barack Obama in November, strongly rejected any sort of talks with the Taliban.

"The right course for America is not to negotiate with the Taliban while the Taliban are killing our soldiers," Romney said during a debate of the five Republican presidential hopefuls ahead of Saturday's South Carolina primary. "The right course is to recognize that they are the enemy of the United States."

more: http://news.yahoo.com/romney-says-u-not-negotiate-taliban-043908939.html

==========

Dumb.

[Angry Dragon]

1. This must be based on all his military experience

gathered in France during the Viet Nam war
and from his sons as they were keeping this country
safe as they campaigned for their father

[DCBob]

2. Clearly foreign policy is a weakness for Romney.

This will be an issue during the real campaign.

[RZM]

4. Probably. But it isn't going to be a foreign policy election

2008 wasn't either. Obama had almost no FP experience at all four years ago, but that ended up not mattering very much. Same thing in 1992. The H-Dub campaign mentioned FP non-stop, yet they still got trounced by Clinton because the economy was what really mattered. All the more interesting since Bush was coming off of a very successful FP event (public opinion wise) with the First Gulf War.

This is going to be an economy election, plain and simple. The Obama campaign will certainly contrast his FP experience against Romney's, but I don't think people will care all that much. It will boil down to who voters think is most likely to create jobs and put money in their pockets. Romney will tout his business angle, but he will also have to defend himself against accusations that he's a heartless fat cat, which isn't going to be easy for him.

[DCBob]

5. Agreed. However it does take a typical RW talking point away.

and that helps.

[RZM]

6. Except I don't think it will go away entirely

They will have to yield on getting Bin Laden and leaving Iraq, of course. But they will hit him on Iran. Whether that will resonate or not I don't know. But they will use it (they already are, of course). But Obama has enough FP successes to mitigate any damage the Republicans can do. It's going to end up being a wash. Neither side will be able to gain an edge with the FP angle. But of course you're right that one can construe that as a victory, since in previous elections Republicans have often polled a bit better than Democrats on security.

[PETRUS]

3. Mr. No Apology

...can't hear you, but will happily report on the topology of his colon should he ever come up for air.