"Romney vows vast military growth" by Theo Emery, The Boston Globe, October 7, 2011
WASHINGTON - A champion of a muscular military policy and an aggressive global reach....
In addition to the criticism aimed at the president, as well as barely concealed jabs at his fellow GOP candidates, Romney laid out an eight-point foreign policy platform that he pledged to undertake in his first 100 days as president.
Some of the elements centered on building America’s military might, including accelerating the construction of Navy vessels and reinvigorating the nation’s missile defense program. On Thursday, Romney had also called for boosting troop levels by 100,000.
“God did not create this country to be a nation of followers,’’ Romney said, adding “America must lead the world, or someone else will.’’
The speech was well received by the cadets. Afterward, some conservatives lauded Romney’s message.
Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said Romney did a good job providing a forceful, detailed policy that answers critics who say he has been short on details.
“This is the kind of competence and leadership that people like to see,’’ she said. “I commend him and his campaign for being smart and being out front.’’
Romney gave few clues of how he would pay for the proposals, beyond a brief mention in a fact sheet of reinvesting money saved from efficiencies found in the procurement process and in staffing. Such a spending spree in a time of budget austerity could expose Romney, who has focused his campaign on accentuating his business acumen, to criticism over his priorities....
Political analysts say that articulating a nuanced foreign policy stance has become more difficult with the increased clout of Tea Party activists, who have ratcheted up tensions between Republicans who want a robust military presence and those who argue that the United States can no longer afford it.
Yes, TRUE TEA PARTY PATRIOTS OPPOSE EMPIRE!
Some activists argue that the nation is spread too thin across the globe, maintains foreign bases that are holdovers from long-passed threats, and should reduce its military footprint and foreign aid.
“You’re hearing more isolationist voices in that party, and that to me is a grave danger to our country,’’ said R. Nicholas Burns, a former undersecretary of state and a professor of diplomacy and international politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Another FORMER BUSH ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL!
The most vocal of such candidates is Texas Republican Ron Paul, a libertarian with an impassioned base of followers. Paul argues that the United States needs to sharply reduce military spending.
He's not perfect, but he is the ONLY HOPE we HAVE for THIS COUNTRY!!
Romney yesterday warned against such a position. “This is America’s moment. We should embrace the challenge, not shrink from it, not crawl into an isolationist shell, not wave the white flag of surrender, nor give in to those who assert America’s moment has passed,’’ he said. “That is utter nonsense.’’
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Look what the Globe website left you.
"Romney builds foreign policy team" October 07, 2011|By Theo Emery, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON –Mitt Romney announced his campaign’s national security and foreign policy team this morning, a group crowded with former Bush administration officials, counter-terrorism experts and advocates of a powerful US presence overseas.
“America and our allies are facing a series of complex threats. To shape them before they explode into conflict, our foreign policy will have to be guided by a strategy of American strength,” said the former Massachusetts governor.
The advisers include Michael Hayden, who directed the CIA from 2006 until 2009 and led the National Security Agency before that; former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; and former State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator J. Cofer Black. Black also directed the CIA’s counter-terrorism center from 1999-2002, when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred.
The announcement of the complete team comes one day before Romney is scheduled to make a major campaign speech on foreign policy at The Citadel in South Carolina, a speech in an early primary state sure to receive close attention from defense hawks and supporters of the armed services.
The group does not include advisers of any single stripe. National security and foreign policy experts see both moderate as well as conservatives Republicans, neo-conservatives as well as realists, among the dozens of advisors.
“This is a very impressive team. These are serious people, they’re internationalists, they are very experienced, and all of them very successful,” said R. Nicholas Burns, a professor of diplomacy and international politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “He’s done well.”
The Bush, 'er, Burns seal of globalist approval.
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Also see:
House of Bush Converts to Mormonism
Romney's Law
"Romney announced his economic policy team , which consists of R. Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School, who was chairman of President Bush’s council of economic advisers from 2001 to 2003; Gregory Mankiw, an economics professor at Harvard University who was chairman of President Bush’s council of economic advisers from 2003 to 2005; former senator Jim Talent of Missouri; and former representative Vin Weber of Minnesota."
And now he has the foreign policy team in place.
Related: The 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee
Just with a Mormon makeover.
"Romney, meanwhile, has moved quickly to lock down the wealthy Republicans who were pushing Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey to seek the nomination. Within hours of Christie announcing his decision not to run on Tuesday, some of his major backers announced that they would support Romney instead.
“I want you to know that Governor Romney just called me a little while ago, and I’ve sworn my allegiance to him,’’ Ken Langone, the billionaire cofounder of Home Depot, said in an interview with Charlie Rose on Tuesday night. Langone was among those pressing hardest for a Christie candidacy, telling Rose, “I did everything but kiss him on the lips, OK?’’
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Other prominent Christie backers who have said they are now supporting Romney include Georgette Mosbacher, a wealthy cosmetics executive, and John Catsimatidis, a New York grocery store magnate.
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Let's get back to business:
"Romney aide trades on political ties" October 07, 2011|By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff
WASHINGTON - Using their close ties to Romney and a hefty political Rolodex, Spencer Zwick, national finance director for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2008, and Romney’s oldest son Taggart, raised more than $200 million for the startup business, Solamere Capital, despite brutal market conditions and their limited experience in the world of high finance. In their prospectus, they said they expected to reinvest the money in an array of equity funds, each of them also managed by Romney political supporters.
The story of Solamere offers a rare glimpse into the intersecting worlds of Romney’s business and political operation....
“This setup screams what’s wrong with our broken system,’’ said Bob Edgar, chief executive of Common Cause, a national nonprofit advocacy group that frequently speaks out against the influence of money and lobbying in politics. “This is a business deal, and Romney is the investment. If he’s elected, they will have access and influence at the White House. If he’s not the next president, they’ll still make a bundle on the deal. Either way, they will be rewarded.’’
Mitt Romney and Solamere’s principals declined through representatives to be interviewed. Solamere said in a statement that there was no consideration given to political connections or support in Solamere’s business strategies and that the firm “adhered to the highest ethical standards.’’ Romney spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said Solamere and the candidate’s political interests are completely separate.
Solamere does not disclose the identities of its investors. Although the prospectus obtained by the Globe lists equity and venture firms that would be potential investment targets, the company would not confirm where it has placed its money. The lack of transparency makes it difficult to verify whether Zwick is appropriately managing his overlapping roles, critics say.
“If the campaign [fund-raiser] is on the one hand getting people to invest in the equity fund and then telling the recipients of the fund, ‘Hey why don’t you write a check to Mitt Romney?’, that’s an issue,’’ said Donald H. Schepers, director of the Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity at Baruch College in New York.
Another political analyst said there did not appear to be anything improper about the arrangement, chalking it up to typical coziness between a political organization and its friends.
“It’s really a story about back-scratching by influential people, money moving around,’’ said historian Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank, who served in the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations and advised presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.
Hess said Solamere is an example of how such business and political elites operate “in the first-class compartment.’’
It is well established that Romney’s business background and ties helped build his political power. In 2008, Zwick flipped that formula upside down, using political leverage to kick off a multimillion-dollar investment firm.
Solamere Capital was named for a private community in Deer Valley, Utah, where Romney owned a ski mansion. It was launched just two weeks after Romney dropped out of the presidential race in February 2008 and incorporated at the same Boston address where the campaign headquarters had been, records show. It later shared an address with Romney’s political action committees in Lexington, before moving to its current Back Bay office.
Solamere is a so-called “fund of funds,’’ meaning it primarily invests in the holdings of other equity firms. Its $200 million initial goal made it a relatively small firm in a world of billion-dollar equity behemoths. The prospectus promised investors “unique access’’ to high-quality equity deals secured through the partners’ “close personal and business relationships.’’
A key element in the initial sales pitch to investors was the Solamere connection to Romney, who cofounded Bain Capital in 1984 and helped turn it into a $66 billion giant in the world of equity investing....
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Update: Romney’s Foreign Policy Advisors Are ‘Culled From The Pro-Israel Community’
Mitt will be president.
