Joe's Union Review: When Romney Was Anti-Anti-China, Not So Long Ago

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.facebook.com/joesunionreview

Joe posted this link: http://www.tnr.com/blog/107685/when-romney-was-anti-anti-china-not-so-long-ago


Alec MacGillis
September 24, 2012 | 2:39 pm

Mitt Romney is kicking off a three-day tour through Ohio, the state he badly needs to win, where Barack Obama has held a stubborn lead for months. Not surprisingly, Romney’s arrival coincides with a new ad hitting Obama for being too soft in pushing back against China’s trade violations. Romney’s been hitting this protectionist line since early in the Republican primaries, which has raised eyebrows coming from a man who has thrived on the realities of global capitalism as much as he has. But I recently came across a remarkable video clip from just three years ago that shows just how radically Romney has shifted on the subject of trade with China.

While reporting a possible piece on Romney’s foreign policy, I discovered a video of a luncheon chat that Romney held in September 2009 at the Foreign Policy Initiative, the organization founded by Bill Kristol to advance the neo-conservative cause. Romney spends most of the discussion pressing a muscular line on the Middle East, Russia and elsewhere. There is an amusing backdrop to the event -- the moderator is Dan Senor, the former Bush administration spokesman in Iraq who tutored Romney on foreign policy during the 2008 campaign and is now a leading advisor on his 2012 team. In replying to Senor’s questions, Romney often turns back toward him as if for approval; after all, Senor helped Romney craft the answers. But near the end of the luncheon, at the 31:30 mark, there is a question from Senor about Obama’s decision that same month to slap tariffs on cheap Chinese tires flooding the U.S., imports that the administration argued violated WTO rules. The question sets Romney loose – he launches on a long, fluid disquisition with nary an affirming glance at Senor. I am going to give the answer in full, because it is quite striking in light of Romney’s current anti-China rhetoric. The particularly eye-catching lines are in bold, but I wanted to provide the full context.

FULL story AND video at link.

[Donowitz]

1. Romney and the Chinese politicians are peas in the pod

Rich, filthy and money-grubbing hatemongers.

Most of the Chinese parliament are billionaires and got there through "investments" similar to Bain Capital. That and suppressing other people's rights.