Wednesday, September 12, 2012

ROMNEY SHOOTS HIMSELF IN FOOT (again) ... A CHRONOLOGY



Most of you probably recall GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney shooting himself in the foot during his Olympic timed trip to Britain and Poland. It was a complete disaster, which I wrote about here.




Well, if you're a supporter of Mitt Romney hold on to your tin foil hats. It appears that Romney has solidified his credentials in embarrassing and inept diplomacy by shooting himself in the foot (again).

It all starts with conservative nut and U.S pastor Terry Jones promising to promote a cheap online "video" during a hate-Muslim fest scheduled in Florida. This should have been enough to warn Romney to stay away. But it wasn't. Here's short chronology of recent events, and Romney's bumbling ...

* In an "International Judge Mohammad Day" event in Florida U.S. pastor Terry Jones - the same idiot who inflamed passions in 2010 by threatening to burn a Koran - is scheduled to participate, with events that include a symbolic trial of the Prophet Mohammad. This is scheduled for September 11th.

* The decidedly anti-Islamic film, Innocence of Muslims, is scheduled to be shown on "Judge Muhammad" day. The Grand Mufti of Egypt condemns the film on September 9.

* On September 10, before the "International Judge Muhammad Day" event, pastor Terry promotes says he will screen the decidedly anti-Islamic film, Innocence of Muslims.

* Egyptian media mogul fans the flames by calling for protests and demonstrations outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

* The U.S. Embassy in Cairo - acting on its own and without clearance from the Obama administration - issued a condemnation of the film on September 11th ...


The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.

* Protests in Cairo, Egypt and demonstrations in Benghazi, Libya lead to the murder of U.S. Ambassador in Libya, Chris Stevens.

Following all of this - and rather than staying away from the mess - GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney decides to double down on his trip abroad stupidity by attacking President Obama's comments, in spite of the fact that "his comments" were actually issued independently by the U.S. Embassy in Egypt before the Ambassador was murdered.

Romney called the embassy's comments - which he attributed to President Obama - as "disgraceful" because of how President Obama "sympathized" with the murderers ... even though the embassy's comments were issued before the murder of the U.S. ambassador in Libya.

If you're having trouble following the convoluted logic behind Romney's comments, you're not alone.

Former Reagan speech writer, Peggy Noonan, made it clear that Romney wasn't helping himself and should have stayed quiet. Former George W. Bush pollster Mathew Dowd jumped in and tweeted, "Romney react feels a lot like ready, fire, aim."

Incredibly, Romney still managed to hit himself in the foot.



Rather than disavow or move away from his comments this morning Romney decided to double down on the stupidity, and walked away from the podium a happy and content man.

I'm sure there's more to come, but I'll leave you with this ...



- Mark 

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