Obama campaign chides Romney on foreign policy ahead of his overseas trip
Last edited Mon Jul 23, 2012, 01:55 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: WaPo
The Obama campaign launched an early effort Monday to discredit Mitt Romney’s upcoming overseas trip, challenging the presumptive Republican nominee to lay out specifics of his foreign policy platform in areas where he disagrees with President Obama.
Romney leaves later this week for visits to Britain, Israel and Poland aimed at projecting the aura of a statesman to convince voters he would make a plausible commander-in-chief. But in a conference call with reporters, Obama’s surrogates said Romney must do more than meet with high-level officials and appear at high-profile events, such as a scheduled appearance at Friday’s opening ceremonies of the London Summer Olympics.
“He needs to prove his worthiness in having a substantive discussion other than just generalities and soundbites in this campaign,” said Robert Gibbs, Obama’s former press secretary and a consultant working with the campaign. “Romney owes it to the American people to say where he stands on important issues as he tries out to be leader of the free world.”
The attacks drew a sharp response from the Romney campaign, which distributed an e-mail criticizing Obama’s 2008 overseas tour, while running for office, as a political gambit to raise campaign cash. And they accused the president of ignoring the deteriorating security situation in Syria in favor of campaigning this year.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/obama-campaign-chides-romney-on-foreign-policy-ahead-of-his-overseas-trip/2012/07/23/gJQAqE1d4W_blog.html
Obama team: Romney must prove trip isn't 'photo op and fundraising tour'
By Justin Sink - 07/23/12 01:17 PM ET
President Obama's campaign team argued Monday that Mitt Romney will need to prove that his overseas trip isn't "one long photo op and fundraising tour" by offering a substantive foreign policy platform during his travels to the United Kingdom, Israel, and Poland.
"He'll need to prove to the American people that he sees foreign policy issues as worthy of substantive discussion rather than just generality and soundbites in this campaign," said campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs. "It's widely accepted that President Obama has an exceptionally strong record on national security issues, and I think quite frankly Mitt Romney is having a tough time making an argument against the president of the United States on these issues."
Gibbs went on to detail the itinerary of President Obama's foreign trip as a candidate in 2008, pointing out that then-Sen. Obama met with troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait and gave a number of extensive speeches and interviews to demonstrate his foreign policy bona fides. Romney does not currently have any plans to meet with American service members while abroad, and the Romney campaign has not advised whether they, like Obama did in 2008, will hold interviews with network news outlets.
"I think at the end of that trip, the American people knew where Barack Obama stood on all the major foreign issues of the day. The question, I think, for Gov. Romney, is whether this trip will be similarly substantive, and live up to the bar set in 2008," Gibbs said.
more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/239491-obama-team-romney-must-prove-trip-isnt-photo-op-and-fundraising-tour
= new reply since forum marked as read
'they accused the president of ignoring the deteriorating security situation in Syria in favor of campaigning this year.'
so the Neocons have been re-energized since they have been all but forgotten when the teabaggers and social conservatives took all the spotlight away. 
