Redstate

"Romney's background in business could make him a good manager of a nation -- but there's a war to worry about, and he has no experience, qualification, or credibility in that area."

Experience in business and industry is usually a trait highly coveted when presidents cast about for defense secretaries - who are tasked with running wars - so it seems odd to me that you don't believe this experience would translate into running the war very well. On the other hand, of the two candidates who you think would do good jobs of running the war, one's primary experience is as a prosecutor and mayor while the other's is as an actor and one-and-a-half term senator.

I'm curious how you think that this experience would distinguish these two candidates as post-9/11 candidates while Romney's tremendous and extremely successful career as a captain of industry makes him a pre-9/11 candidate because on the face of it, your assertion doesn't make much sense.

I never said that McC or Rudy "would do good jobs of running the war" -- I said that they are not pre-9/11 candidates. Romney's issue slate, way of doing business, and entire mindset appear to be far better suited to the world of the 1990s -- a world in which America was chiefly concerned with comfort, efficiency, and its own inner workings. A post-9/11 world isn't the place for the weak-kneed flip-flopping leader of the 1990s who has to be scripted and rehearsed and cannot be trusted to think or react appropriately in a pinch.

A look at the GWOT issues suite on Romney's website demonstrates his lack of fitness adequately enough, with all of its platitudes, generalities, and politician-speak that really doesn't say anything at all one way or another about much of anything.

Romney's issue slate begins with 1. Keeping Americans safe, 2. Confronting radical jihad, and 3. Combating nuclear terrorism.

Rudy's first two issues are 1. Fiscal discipline and 2. Cutting taxes before he gets to 3. Winning the war on terror - which is filled with nothing BUT political platitudes as opposed to the actionable items that Mitt Romney puts forward. A review of John McCain's website doesn't really present any more of a sophisticated approach filled with any fewer political platitudes. So...Mitt Romney says we need to increase the size of the military by 100,000 and that's just "politician-speak" to you, but John McCain says virtually the same thing and that's a post-9/11 candidate?

You embarrass yourself, Jeff.

Second of all, Romney's evolutions on policy positions have (1) been in a conservative direction and (2) all more or less about domestic social policy. So because he was once wrong about domestic social policy and evolved more conservatively, you think that he's going to cave to Islamofascist terrorists? Give me a break.

Let's compare the "On the Issues" section from one of your post-9/11 candidates to the "Issues" section of Mitt Romney's website, who you accuse of being a pre-9/11 candidate, and let's see who has more platitudes and which candidate has more actionable items. I think that it clearly reveals that Mitt Romney is a candidate who clearly knows what it will take to defeat America's enemies abroad while improving the quality of life for Americans at home at the same time.

Jeff's Post 9/11 Candidate: "Rudy Giuliani believes winning the war on terror is the great responsibility of our generation. America cannot afford to go back to the days of playing defense, with inconsistent responses to terrorist attacks, because weakness only encourages aggression. Americans want peace. We’re at war not because we want to be, but because the terrorists declared war on us—well before the attacks of September 11th. Rudy understands that freedom is going to win this war of ideas. America will win the war on terror."

Mitt Romney, Jeff's Pre-9/11 Candidate: "We must strengthen our military by increasing the size of our military by 100,000 troops and dedicating at least four percent of our gross domestic product to defense. We must transform our domestic civilian international efforts to meet a new generation of global challenges and ensure that our intelligence and law enforcement efforts are able to address threats before they reach out shores.

CHALLENGE: After President George H.W. Bush left office, in 1993, the Clinton Administration began to dismantle the military, taking advantage of what has been called a "peace dividend" from the end of the Cold War. We took the dividend, but we did not get the peace.

Meanwhile, we lost about 500,000 military personnel and about $50 billion a year in military spending. The U.S. Army lost four active divisions and two reserve divisions. The U.S. Navy lost almost 80 ships. The U.S. Air Force saw its active personnel decrease by 30 percent. The Marines' personnel dropped by 22,000.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "They took the dividend, but didn't get the peace. It seems that we had come to believe that war and threats and evil men were gone forever. As Charles Krauthammer observed, we took a 'holiday from history.'" (Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks At The George Herbert Walker Bush Presidential Library, 4/10/07)

CHALLENGE: In our civilian agencies, a more pervasive problem exists: bureaucratic inaction. Today, there is no unity among our international nonmilitary resources. There is no clear leadership and no clear line of authority. Too often, we have to struggle to integrate our nonmilitary instruments into coherent, timely, and effective operations.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "[We] removed barriers to unify efforts across the services. This included establishing 'joint commands' with individual commanders fully responsible for their geographic region...

Our non military resources enjoy no such jointness, no such clear leadership, no such clear lines of authority and responsibility. Too often we struggle to integrate our military and civilian instruments of national power into coherent, timely and effective operations." (Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks At The George Herbert Walker Bush Presidential Library, 4/10/07)

CHALLENGE: During the Clinton Administration, our intelligence community was critically weakened. The CIA workforce was slashed by almost 20% and recruitment was reduced dramatically, undermining effective human intelligence. Unfortunately, Washington's response has focused on creating a new, expanded and duplicative bureaucracy in the Directorate of National Intelligence.
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The Romney Plan:

A Stronger Military. We must increase the size of our military by 100,000 troops. In addition, we should increase to at least four percent of our gross domestic product to defense. This kind of investment will make up for critical gaps in the modernization of our equipment, personnel and health care efforts. However, as we invest in our military, we must ensure that funds are used to address critical needs of the men and women of our Armed Forces, not political or contractor interests.

Transform And Strengthen Our Domestic Civilian International Efforts To Meet A New Generation Of Challenges. Building on the Goldwater-Nichols military reforms of the 1980s, we need to ensure that our civilian instruments of national power have the ability to build joint efforts among our civilian agencies and empower Regional Deputies with clear lines of authority, sufficient budgets and the responsibility to develop and execute regional plans and strategies. We must also constantly challenge bureaucratic "group think" and revitalize our national security structures so we have the capabilities needed to meet 21st century challenges.

Strengthen Strategic Planning. Many of our civilian national security and foreign policy structures were created decades ago. Today we need strengthened capabilities to strategically integrate all elements of national power. National Security Council staff must be empowered and accountable for reaching out to divergent viewpoints and challenging policies and proposals.

Protect The Homeland. While there has been much emphasis on protecting facilities and responding to attacks, a key priority must be prevention. Today, protecting the homeland must begin far from home. Intelligence and law enforcement efforts able to address threats before they reach our shores must be a priority for U.S. and international action. This will demand new U.S. capabilities, stronger international alliances and integration of our federal actions with international, state and local efforts.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "[W]e need to increase our investment in national defense. This means adding at least 100,000 troops and making a long-overdue investment in equipment, armament, weapons systems, and strategic defense. [W]e are going to need at least an additional $30-$40 billion annually over the next several years to modernize our military, fill gaps in troop levels, ease the strain on our National Guard and Reserves, and support our wounded soldiers. The next president should commit to spending a minimum of four percent of GDP on national defense." (Governor Mitt Romney, “Rising To A New Generation Of Global Challenges,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007)

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "We need to fundamentally change the cultures of our civilian agencies and create dynamic, flexible, and task-based approaches that focus on results rather than bureaucracy. ... For every region, one civilian leader should have authority over and responsibility for all the relevant agencies and departments, similar to the single military commander who heads U.S. Central Command." (Governor Mitt Romney, "Rising To A New Generation Of Global Challenges," Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007)

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "The key to effective homeland security, in my view, is intelligence, finding the attackers before they attack, gathering and analyzing tips, monitoring suspects, wiretapping, surveillance, all of the tools associated with intelligence work. It's aided measurably by the Patriot Act, perhaps our most effective new tool. It is also dependent on effective delineations of responsibilities between and among federal agencies, across federal and state lines and state and local lines." (Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks At The National Press Club, 7/14/04)
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And even if he had been, his city was mugged by two jetliners worth of reality.

"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill

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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.