Was Mitt Rimney’s foreign tour a success or a failure? One way or another, writes Mariusz Zawadzki of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza, the nation of Poland came out a winner, since Romney’s gaffe-filled trips to Britain and Israel raised interest in Romney’s time in Poland. Furthermore, Zawadzki writes, when it comes to the U.S. presidential election – there isn’t a whole lot of difference between the two men.
For the Gazeta Wyborcza, Mariusz Zawadzki’s funnily ironic article says in part :
Let us not be picky – we found ourselves at the center of America’s spotlight and came out with flying colors. This has value regardless of the outcome of the U.S. elections in November. Thank you, Mitt!
Paradoxically, we were helped by Romney’s catastrophic blunders in Great Britain and Israel. America was listening with heightened interest to news from Warsaw, wondering whether the extraordinary black series would continue. Nobody expected Romney’s first foreign visit to be such a blow to his image – he literally managed to conjure bad emotions out of nothing, even in circumstances which usually generate only good ones, like the Olympics. A day before the opening of the London Games, he was on TV expressing doubt about the preparedness of its hosts, which brought ridicule and mockery on his head, both from Britain’s media and politicians.
In Jerusalem he proffered – on his own, nobody asked him! – a shocking opinion that the because of their culture, Israelis are economically prosperous as compared to the Palestinians.
As Romney flew from Jerusalem to Poland, his critics and mockers wondered what he might say while visiting us that would be equally idiotic and offensive. For example, would he lecture Putin and threaten him with a return of the Cold War? Several months ago Romney said that Russia is America’s “greatest geopolitical enemy.” Ultimately, however, his Warsaw speech turned out to be a boilerplate enumeration of the virtues and merits of the heroic, freedom-loving Polish nation, starting with Kazimierz Pulaski, through the Polish pope’s world-changing “Do not be afraid,” to the “simple electrician who toppled communism” and gratitude for help in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that Romney’s vision of the world, as outlined in his previous statements, is anachronistic, as if they were borrowed from the Cold War era. One must hope that this is largely a picture drawn for the election’s sake. We will only know for sure if the Republican candidate wins in November. Then the conversations in Gda?sk and Warsaw will have proven invaluable – not only will Poland be America’s friend, but Polish leaders will be among the first foreign friends and advisers of its president.
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