Shots In The Dark: Mitt Romney Runs for President...Badly

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Mitt Romney Runs for President...Badly

Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has announced that he will not offer state protection to Mohammed Khatami, the former president of Iran, when he comes to Harvard's Kennedy School to speak on September 11th.

"There are people in this state who have suffered from terrorism, and taking even a dollar of their money to support a terrorist is unacceptable," Romney told the Boston Globe. "The shock of the commemoration of a great tragedy coinciding with the visit of a terrorist to our state was too great to go unnoticed. For that reason, I have directed state resources not to be used to ease or encourage his visit."

Romney must think that trashing someone, anyone, from Iran will help his presidential chances, but his demagoguery isn't an encouraging sign for diplomacy in a potential Romney administration. Khatami, after all, was a reformer; when he was elected president in 1997, he promised greater freedom for women and liberalization of the press in Iran, and promotes dialogue between the United States and Middle Eastern countries.

Granted, things haven't exactly gone that way; Khatami was defeated last year by conservative theocrat Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has shown much less interest in civil relations with the West (to put it mildly). If Romney were to get upset about Ahmadinejad coming to Harvard, he'd have a stronger case. (But even then, far from a conclusive one.)

But if we can not speak to Middle Eastern leaders like Mohammed Khatami, we are isolating ourselves from reasonable and progressive (at least by their standards) Islamic leaders...and we are betraying America's most essential principles.

Perhaps this is another reason why Americans are actually coming to believe that Democrats would be better for national security than are Republicans....

¶ 7:56 AM

Comments:

Romney would do well to read some Voltaire, but he'd probably assume it's a french styling product for his hair.

Bad politicking indeed.

# posted by Anonymous : 8:28 AM

Alas, we have come to a bad place. It is now the popular view that whenever someone speaks at a university, the university is endorsing -- or "celebrating," as Romney says -- the speaker's position. So at the same time as universities are attacked for their political biases they are urged to advocate certain political philosophies and not allow others to be heard. What happened to the idea that words are all we have in a university, and the university is the place where words of all kinds can enlighten, by doing war with other words?

# posted by Anonymous : 9:17 AM

Please. Free speech, sure. But to be shocked that anyone would take issue with the unbelievably poor timing here is absurd. As reform minded as he may have pretended to be, I imagine he's still "death to Israel." I know we've come to accept that sort of idiotic hare-brained rhetoric as being par for the course in that corner of the world--but that doesn't mean it IS acceptable rhetoric for any so-called diplomat. I'm sure, given his audience, he'll leave that bit out of his routine this Sunday.

For once, Romney's right.

# posted by Anonymous : 10:48 AM

People are right to be upset about the nature of Khatami's politics, the timing of the event, his rhetoric, and what he represents. That being said, people should be equally upset that a high-ranking public official is exploiting this visit for political gain, rendering a decision that runs contrary to virtues of free speech, free exchange of ideas, that also jeopardizes a unique opportunity for the public to directly address a polarizing figure in a forum that Americans might not otherwise have access to.

# posted by Anonymous : 11:10 AM

Well, here's what I've got on that:

"Khatami said Iran was not intent on eliminating Israel and accepted a two-state solution that included Israel and a new Palestine - on terms acceptable to the Palestinians.

"He contradicted the recent angry rhetoric of his hardline successor, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

"The practical policy of the Islamic republic has never been to eliminate or wipe Israel off the map. And I don't believe that this policy has changed with the change of president," he said.>>

That's from the Sidney Morning Herald; the folks over at National Review Online, however,aren't buying it.

# posted by richard : 11:13 AM

He is emphatically pro-Hizbollah. Pull his string and he says, as always, "let there be a discussion between civilizations." Well, talking about a discussion for years on end does not a discussion make. And Hizbollah blows up pizza parlors--that's their idea of discussion. With one hand he said "look at me, I'm reforming" while the other hand patted suicide bombers on the back as they made their way down the trail from Iran through Syria and into Lebanon. Discussion over.

# posted by Anonymous : 11:27 AM

The "let's be as immoral as our adversaries" argument is loathesome. And that's what Romney (and others) are retailing.

# posted by Anonymous : 11:43 AM

If it were 1938 and Hitler were invited to speak, should we let him speak?

# posted by Anonymous : 12:03 PM

So denying the use of taxpayer money to make a "diplomat" from a hostile regime more comfortable is immoral? Wow, what a slew of moral quadaries you must run into during the course of your days...hope you're medicating properly.

# posted by Anonymous : 12:14 PM

In the meantime...

Bush plan would withhold terror evidence

By Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer
September 6, 2006

"President Bush pushed a hard line Wednesday on trying terror suspects through military tribunals, exhorting Congress to allow evidence to be withheld from a defendant if necessary to protect classified information..."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/09/06/bush_to_unveil_plan_for_gitmo_trials/

So when does Bush take the logical next step and start having Department of Homeland Security officers hauling away citizens in the middle of the night.

# posted by Anonymous : 12:52 PM

Yeah, we're almost there. It's about to be 1984 for real. There's something intensely pathetic and self-important about believing we're almost there (when we're not at all), believing someone might come for YOU soon enough, should you keep up your good fight. Don't hold your breath, Chicken Little.

# posted by Anonymous : 1:34 PM

Dear Bozo (12:14), providing security to a foreign diplomat -- especially one from a hostile country -- is not a question of morality alone, it is a question of foreign policy and plain common sense. One of our diplomats speaking at the University of Tehran would be just as controversial from the Iranian perspective. That gives us a reason to extend the same protections. This is a ridiculous discussion and Mitt Romney is an ass.

# posted by Anonymous : 2:11 PM

To 2:11

Amen.

# posted by Anonymous : 2:14 PM

To Anon 1:34 - you doth protest too much. Civil liberties have been significantly eroded in the last few years by an administration that is more interested in demonizing terrorists to justify unrelated foreign policy objectives than catching them. You think it can't happen here? Then I guess you think Dick Cheney is a moral man, which makes you a chump.

# posted by Anonymous : 2:15 PM

Unless you've been calling the wrong places in Pakistan or been giving donations to suicide bomber pledge drives in Saudi Arabia, your civil liberties haven't been touched.

# posted by Anonymous : 3:54 PM

Khatami was NOT defeated last year. Ahm. beat a guy called Rafsanjani, a former conservative who ran as a reformer.

# posted by Anonymous : 10:34 PM

Mea culpa, 10:34. Thanks for the correction.

# posted by richard : 12:04 AM

To 3:54 - you forgot "or checked anything out of the library, or ran searches on yahoo." Please. You're obviously one of those folks who thinks that it's fine to constrain some liberties if the ends are just. Our government wouldn't do anything really bad, right?. Stay in your cocoon and don't worry, they'll come to get you long after they get me.

# posted by Anonymous : 10:54 AM

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