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'Hope is Not a Strategy': Mitt Romney's Foreign Policy Address
ABC News ^

Posted on 10/08/2012 9:53:16 AM PDT by Sub-Driver

'Hope is Not a Strategy': Mitt Romney's Foreign Policy Address

October 8, 2012

As prepared for delivery October 8, 2012, at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, here is Mitt Romney's address on foreign policy, titled "The Mantle of Leadership."

I particularly appreciate the introduction from my good friend and tireless campaign companion, Gov. Bob McDonnell. He is showing what conservative leadership can do to build a stronger economy. Thank you also Congressman Goodlatte for joining us today. And particular thanks to Gen. Peay. I appreciate your invitation to be with you today at the Virginia Military Institute. It is a great privilege to be here at an Institution that has done so much for our nation, both in war and in peace.

For more than 170 years, VMI has done more than educate students. It has guided their transformation into citizens, and warriors, and leaders. VMI graduates have served with honor in our nation's defense, just as many are doing today in Afghanistan and other lands. Since the September 11th attacks, many of VMI's sons and daughters have defended America, and I mourn with you the 15 brave souls who have been lost. I join you in praying for the many VMI graduates and all Americans who are now serving in harm's way. May God bless all who serve, and all who have served.

Of all the VMI graduates, none is more distinguished than George Marshall—the Chief of Staff of the Army who became Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, who helped to vanquish fascism and then planned Europe's rescue from despair. His commitment to peace was born of his direct knowledge of the awful costs and consequences of war.

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bho44; foreignpolicy; miserablefailure; romney2012
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To: maggief

Hmmmmm....it is really starting to sound like all is being set for Obama to steal this election. Between this, millions of hollow point bullets going to obscure federal agencies and the media trying to convince everyone that Obama has already won....we have major problems headed our way.
be prepared and don’t let anything stop you from voting folk! Nothing!


21 posted on 10/08/2012 2:02:36 PM PDT by penelopesire (TIME FOR A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR!)
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To: penelopesire; maggief

Stolen election has been my biggest fear. Just pointed out on FOX that he is again receiving funds from out of country.
OB and Thugs think rules are to be broken. They are above the law....Sure wish something (at this point anything) would come crashing down on them. A visable falling of their house of cards.


22 posted on 10/08/2012 2:13:26 PM PDT by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then.)
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To: penelopesire

Seems both Dunn and Klain quietly rejoined Obama’s inner circle, er, never left and flew under the radar.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/05/nation/la-na-biden-chief-20110105

As Biden’s top aide, Klain had a tough assignment. Obama and Biden had little in the way of a personal relationship when they took office. And Biden’s penchant for gaffes annoyed a White House staff that prized discretion.

From Biden’s standpoint, two positive developments played out under Klain’s tenure.

After internal meetings that were devoted to Biden, White House aides are less likely to recoil when the vice president wanders off message. And Biden has been allowed into the inner circle, spending hours a day in meetings with Obama.

Klain came to the job after making a mark in popular culture. A chief of staff to former Vice President Al Gore, Klain was portrayed by Kevin Spacey in the HBO movie “Recount,” the story of the disputed 2000 presidential race between Gore and George W. Bush.

“The most important thing a chief of staff can do for a vice president is to be a serious and respected player within the president’s staff,” said Roy Neel, who like Klain was a chief of staff to Gore. “The vice president lives and dies according to the deference that he gets from the president and the president’s staff. And having someone who comes with the stature and experience of Ron is half the game right there.”


Posted this about a year ago.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/65018.html#comments

W.H. aides debated politics of Solyndra visit

EXCERPT

That same day, DoE’s stimulus point man, Matt Rogers, defended Solyndra in an email to Klain. “The ‘going concern’ letter is standard for companies pre-IPO,” Rogers wrote, adding, “the company should be strong going into the fall with their new facilities on line.”

Rod O’Connor, who was Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s chief of staff at the time, also chimed in to Klain. “Bottom line is that we believe the company is OK in the medium term but will need some help of one kind or another down the road,” O’Connor wrote.

Klain then sent the two comments from the DoE officials to Jarrett with a recommendation that Obama participate in the event at Solyndra.

“Sounds like there are some risk factors here — but that’s true of any innovative company that POTUS would visit,” Klain wrote. “It looks like it is OK to me, but if you feel otherwise, let me know.”

“I’m comfortable if you’re comfortable,” Jarrett replied.

Klain responded, “The reality is that if POTUS visited 10 such places over the next 10 months, probably a few will be belly-up by Election Day 2012 — but that to me is the reality of saying that we want to help promote cutting-edge, new economy industries.”

//

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94EC8D00&show_article=1

Democratic sources: Biden chooses chief of staff
Nov 13 07:15 PM US/Eastern
By LIZ SIDOTI

EXCERPT

Klain is a former partner in the Washington law and lobbying firm O’Melveny & Myers.

Senate lobbying records show that at the firm, Klain’s lobbying clients included Fannie Mae, U.S. Airways, Time Warner and the Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, a business group that sought government help resolving asbestos lawsuits. However, the most recent lobbying Klain appears to have done was in 2004 for Fannie Mae and Time Warner.

He was involved in both of Clinton’s presidential campaigns, and was Gore’s top aide in the vice presidential office for several years. He later had a senior role in Gore’s 2000 campaign, including the Florida recount and Supreme Court standoff that ultimately tipped the election to George W. Bush. Actor Kevin Spacey played Klain in the 2008 HBO film “Recount.”

In 2004, Klain was among several veterans of the Clinton-Gore political campaigns who advised retired Gen. Wesley Clark in the Democratic primaries. He backed Biden, whom he had known from working with Senate committees, four years later.

//

(no link)

THE PURSUIT OF A DAUNTING ENERGY JOB
Washington Post - Wednesday, January 6, 1993
Author: Al Kamen ; Thomas W. Lippman ; Steven Mufson ; David S. Broder

EXCERPT

Washington lawyer Jamie S. Gorelick, a longtime FOZ (Friend of Zoe’s), has put together a legal brain trust to assist Attorney General-designate Zoe E. Baird at her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.).

The group includes two former Biden chief counsels, Mark Gitenstein and Ron Klain , former staff director Jeff Peck, and Duke Law School Prof. Walter Dellinger, veterans of bitter fights over judicial nominations in the late 1980s who now find themselves working for, not against, committee confirmation.

//

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/01/05/qa-with-steve-case-about-ron-klain-livingsocial-venture-capital/

Jan 5, 2011
Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, is leaving the White House to become the new president of Case Holdings, the investment company of AOL co-founder Steve Case. Klain is leaving his current position later this month and will oversee Case’s various holdings including investment firm Revolution LLC, investments in Hawaii including Grove Farm and Maui Land & Pineapple, and Steve and Jean Case’s Case Foundation.

We spoke with Case to talk about Klain and the direction of Revolution LLC, which has invested in hot start-up companies such as LivingSocial Inc., which recently raised $175 million from Amazon.com, Zipcar Inc., which is in IPO registration, Everyday Health Inc., and Revolution Money Inc., which was acquired by American Express Co. in 2009 for $300 million.

http://www.revolution.com/our-team/ronald-a-klain

http://www.revolution.com/our-investments

wiki:

Steve Case

In early 2011, he was selected by President Barack Obama to serve as Chairman of the Startup America Partnership and named to the President’s Council on Jobs & Competitiveness.

//

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/obama-to-streamline-the-loan-guarantee-program/

Nov. 8, 2010

The Obama administration is working on streamlining the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program, a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) tells me this morning. The move follows a leaked memo (online here) dated October 25, reported by the Wall Street Journal (and picked up by others), from White House officials to the President that lays out several recommendations for ways to revamp the DOE loan guarantee program. One of the recommendations from that memo was moving the remaining loan guarantee program funds to another renewable energy grant program, basically killing the loan guarantee program.

But instead of “reprogramming” the loan guarantee program, the Obama administration and the DOE have decided to remain committed to the program and try to make it better and take less time, the OMB spokesperson tells me.

(snip)

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:EbKYTMmLPbEJ:media.oregonlive.com/politics_impact/other/Summers_renewable_energy_memo%255B1%255D.pdf+October+25+Larry+Summers,+Carol+Browner+and+Ron+Klain+.&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESglfHhk_WGbV5gFE-OGq2gO9-_61_rzarpPuWIjS3yLM5vkdeCR1fSdCssmxpeMf-Bu8W5m_tBXbQj0fHlBQxEctf4bIqdWYjegfUfsWN1WGoZyX1OqEZ8Te5saGMLUCkdX0BZH&sig=AHIEtbQbvAYeClnCzWSUB_c6kOpD8lwN_g

October 25, 2010. MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT. F ROM: CAROL BROWNER. RON KLAIN. LARRY SUMMERS. SUBJECT: Renewable Energy Loan ...


23 posted on 10/08/2012 2:20:12 PM PDT by maggief
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To: maggief

Peas in a pod??
Birds of a feather?
Rabbit pellets? AKA
Rodent turds


24 posted on 10/08/2012 2:30:07 PM PDT by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then.)
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To: maggief

Peas in a pod??
Birds of a feather?
Rabbit pellets? AKA
Rodent turds


25 posted on 10/08/2012 2:34:26 PM PDT by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then.)
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To: hoosiermama

“Stolen election has been my biggest fear.”

You can bet the wheels are in motion.

I’m thinking the ever-gaffervescent Biden might be the one to deliver the “you’re no Jack Kennedy”-esque sound bite.


26 posted on 10/08/2012 2:35:58 PM PDT by maggief
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To: hoosiermama

Obama and his cronies will stop at nothing to keep him in power. Unless we vote in mass he will try to steal this election. The only chance we have is overwheming numbers of conservatives,republicans and independents showing up at the polls so that the margin is so wide no funny business is possible.


27 posted on 10/08/2012 4:05:22 PM PDT by penelopesire (TIME FOR A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR!)
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To: Sub-Driver

“...to vanquish fascism...”

Did we...after all?


28 posted on 10/08/2012 6:49:44 PM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: Sub-Driver
Hope isn't a strategy?
Neither is refusing to understand the ideology of our enemy? Neither is refusing to name or understand our opponents.
Neither is helping our opponents get WMDs by taking Syria.
Romney has the unmitigated gall to refference the creator the "containment policy", even as he call for aiding the Muslim Brotherhood (and thus also Al Qaeda). Jeane Kirkpartick is rolling over in her grave with the current generation of neo-Jacobins. You can't fix Willful Blindness. And when we are hit with a WMD under a Romney presidency, we will get a Democrat President. The Constitution Party may be a joke, but at least Virgil Goode doesn't believe in aiding our enemies in time of war.
29 posted on 10/08/2012 8:34:59 PM PDT by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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To: rmlew

You don’t seem to understand the strategy of winning an election.

You can’t always say what you want to.


30 posted on 10/08/2012 8:38:02 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: rmlew

Virgil Goode is aiding our enemies, by clouding the election, and he knows it fulwell.


31 posted on 10/08/2012 8:40:06 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: editor-surveyor
Romney supporting helping Al Qaeda in Libya and attacked the president for not leading the charge to help the AQIM. Romney is either ignorant or a fool. And he has surrounded himself with "neoconservatives" whose stupidity and refusal to learn anything leaves them pissing on the graves of the first generation. In 1980, neocons understood the difference between supporting liberty, and promoting "democratic" revolutions that aid the enemy.

Go read Jean Kirkpatrick's famous Dictatorships & Double Standards and explain to me how Romney and the current generation of neocons are not Jimmy Carter in drag.

32 posted on 10/08/2012 8:46:07 PM PDT by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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To: editor-surveyor
How does sounding like Dubya mk 2 help?

Breaking with the past, while supporting America's national interest would get attention and votes. The American people are tired of war. How does repeating the errors of Libya gain popular support.
33 posted on 10/08/2012 8:52:57 PM PDT by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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To: rmlew
Not everyone in Libya is AQIM, as you seem to think. Not everyone in Syria is AQ either, as you seem to think- although the Russians and Iranians would like us all to think so, because they would like to have control over both for themselves, albeit for different reasons. Left as-is both will become AQ strongholds as the most ruthless and most organizaed will gain full control in the absence of a reasonably cohesive restraining force.

There are a wide variety of factions in both countries but the only way the more civil of these options will come to the forefront is if they have some kind of help to provide some stability until they can become at least as welll organized as their enemies and stand a chance. AQ is already organized which is why we can't just walk away- if we are going to walk away we may as well just crown AQ ourselves and give them the keys to NY hotel rooms so they can finish what they started. No one's interest will be serve by allowing either of these places to remain safe havens for terrorist groups. The democratically oriented people there- and there are many in both Libya and Syria- need a strong horse, not a treacherous one-trick pony that's been trained to bow or skip away.

Unfortunately, retreating and letting AQIM and AQ have their way, or Hezbollah and Iran have its way, is not an option. In Libya the deed is done, the original government removed, and there is a vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum; we can fill it or someone else will surely fill it, and that someone else is not a nice bunch. 9/11 was the result of walking away from Afghanistan and leaving a vacuum which then was filled by Pakistan with Taliban.

Hezbollah over the years not only filled the vacuum of Lebanon but spilled over and flowed around the world, becoming firmly established even in our hemisphere, and bold enough to plan attacks in our own country; it is not going to just pack up and leave one day on its own out of the goodness of its heart.

One way or another, we are going to have to find a way to help the least threatening and or most useful factions gain the upper hand. Something is going to fill the void in Libya and Syria and the west is much better off if it has some influence in choosing who and what that will be rather than letting it go to the default setting, which is always the most violent.

34 posted on 10/09/2012 3:10:27 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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