At this point Mitt Romney probably wants to pack his bags and come home from his big trip. Romney’s foreign policy credentials are in serious jeopardy. His trip to London and now Israel have only gathered bad press and foreign campaign donations, neither of which will weigh in his favor with American voters.
In London he mocked the Olympic Games and became the butt of jokes from the London Mayor and PM David Cameron. His campaign may be accepting money from bankers implicated in the LIBOR scandal. And, the cost of his fundraising dinner tickets dropped precipitously, from $25k originally to $10k.
Quick London review of Romney’s foreign policy visit: insult our biggest foreign policy ally, accept dirty cash, turn off potential donors.
Now the GOP presidential hopeful is in Israel where Palestinian groups are calling him a racist for pointing to a culture difference creating the economic disparity between Israel and Palestine.
A senior aide to Palestinian President Abbas stated in response, “it seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people. He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority.”
It doesn’t sound like the Palestinian authorities are buying Romney’s foreign policy credentials. Despite Mitt’s comments and the Palestinian response, Romney threw a fundraising breakfast at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem and hauled in over $1M from 45 donors in attendance.
In short, Romney failed to impress on foreign policy, but he did connect with several more high dollar donors in a few days in Israel.
His next stop will be in Poland where he will be touring World War II sites and stopping by the bronze Ronald Reagan statue in Gdansk. Mitt will also attempt to highlight the Obama Administration’s decision to cease building a missile defense system for Poland.