Had Mitt Romney been president, do you think we would've already been at war both in Syria and Russia?

No, he would have done exactly what Obama has done.

He might have handled Benghazi better but there’s no way to really know. He’s very much a “follow the poll numbers” type. And the populace of America, by and large, has had our fill of watering the desert sands with American blood to last for awhile. At least I hope we have.

That’s a pretty loaded question.

The president only has so much power, even if they are republican.

No, the USA would be at war on it’s own soil.

As someone else has said, he would have done exactly as Obama has done. It’s easily enough to fan the rhetoric when it’s not your call to make, but when you’re actually in that position it becomes a whole ‘nother ball game.

I don’t think so. I don’t take Romney to be a warmonger.

It is impossible to tell what Mitt Romney would have done as far as military action is concerned.

The stronger America is the more world peace there be.

More importantly…

Do think he was called Mittens in school?

I think he’d have been weeping into his mama’s breast while sucking his thumb.

If McCain was president, we’d definitely be at war.

@syz Absolutely!

Not a thing would have changed except there would be a right wing spin on basically the same agenda.

Romney IMHO would not have been so cavalier to draw lines in the sand he had no intention of enforcing. Obama blinked and we now have little to no credibility especially with countries like Iran, Syrian and Russia and have even less credibility with our allies in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Eastern Parts of Europe. Thanks to Obama, our Allies can only be sure we will throw them under the bus to avoid conflict. Romney has a backbone that clearly Obama does not.

No, not with Romney.

But had it been Cheney/Bush we would all be radioactive dust right now. Same with McCain although he would have done it just so as he did not appear to be a pussy whereas Cheney would have done it, well, just because he is an asshole.

Romney is a pussy. He would have tried to be the guiding light, but he would have ended up sucking hind tit.

@Cruiser “Romney has a backbone that clearly Obama does not.”

As evidenced by Romney’s career mastery of the flip-flop.

If Romney had been elected it never would have got to this point. There would have been sane discussions between two grown men. Not one man and a kid trying to act like a man.

@Darth_Algar So sorry to see you do not agree with my opinion on your Mr. Wonderful in the White House and even sorrier you cannot see the truth of the fact that Obama has thoroughly screwed up our reputation to deal effectively, decisively and credibly with international matters. You apparently are very comfortable with being seen as cowardly and weak…I am not.

Questions like this always reveal how delusion neo-cons and Republikans are. @Darth_Algar is right. There would be no difference. Russia is simply not afraid of the USA’s military might. It might be the only non-ally country in the world that has the luxury to just not give a shit.

@Cruiser: Bush did that. The jingoistic response to 9/11 was a spectacle of American stupidity and then Iraq was a spectacle of American weakness. Until the NSA scandal hit, Obama had even made strides in repairing a lot of the damage.

@bolwerk How quickly you either forget or choose to rationalize some half assed defense of the piss poor job Obama is indeed doing by ignoring the fact that nearly 100% of the US citizens wanted revenge post 9/11. You must not be old enough to remember this blood-lust clamor by everyone at that time but I do and Bush was merely responding to the pressures demanded by an outraged American public.

Up until very recently the United States has had a stellar reputation for standing up to Russia’s aggression and it is a pitiful shame we have lost that reputation all because of Barry’s indecisiveness, red-lines and harsh words which has afforded Russia the luxury to not give a shit.

@Cruiser: Um, I lived four blocks from the World Trade Center when 9/11 happened, thank you very much for the condescending ageism. Clamoring for revenge and being belligerent makes you look petulant and, well, weak. And America behaving that way in 2003 set the stage for Russia’s behavior in 2014. Disappointing I know, but it’s not really something you can blame on the black Rockefeller Republican. If Dick Nixon himself were now in his 12th term right now, things would not be happening much differently.

@bolwerk The best example of this is the Cuban Missle Crisis. I don’t know if you are intimately familiar with the dynamics of that standoff but it was beyond intense with the stoic resolve of Kennedy and his advisers being the reason Khrushchev backed down. He later admitted he was scared shitless at what he feared Kennedy would do. His letter to Kennedy shows just how intense this event was….

“Mr. President, we and you ought not now to pull on the ends of the rope in which you have tied the knot of war, because the more the two of us pull, the tighter that knot will be tied. And a moment may come when that knot will be tied so tight that even he who tied it will not have the strength to untie it, and then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you, because you yourself understand perfectly of what terrible forces our countries dispose.”

“Consequently, if there is no intention to tighten that knot and thereby to doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, then let us not only relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let us take measures to untie that knot. We are ready for this.
Letter From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy, October 26, 1962[69]”

That said, in defense of “black Rockefeller Republican”...we do not and more than likely will not know what was and is being said in private between the Russian’s and our administration. This hubris by Putin playing out in the media is exactly what Russia is hoping for and IMO is the only real card they can play right now as Obama’s and Kerry’s harsh words do back up real sanctions that will have real effects we will see play out in time.

@Cruiser: touching sentimentality for a president well to the left of Black Bush, and probably much more shy about projecting U.S. military power, but you’re asking for the Cuban missile crisis in reverse. Crimea is right next to Russia, so close there is practically a land connection. There is nothing being stoic can do, much less waving your dick. I’m not defending Russia, but Putin knows what he’s doing and what he can get away with (at least militarily).

@Cruiser “So sorry to see you do not agree with my opinion on your Mr. Wonderful in the White House and even sorrier you cannot see the truth of the fact that Obama has thoroughly screwed up our reputation to deal effectively, decisively and credibly with international matters. You apparently are very comfortable with being seen as cowardly and weak…I am not.”

And here you idiotically assume that I am necessarily an Obama supporter simply because I do not share your desire for international dick waggling or have your rosey-eyed view of Mitt Romney.

@Darth_Algar I never said you were an Obama supporter just observing that “you cannot see the truth of the fact that Obama has thoroughly screwed up our reputation to deal effectively, decisively and credibly with international matters.”

@bolwerk I don’t see protecting our interests and those of our allies as “dick wagging”...I see it as upholding what is right and just according to the international laws we as a civilized world have agreed to.

Iran is soon to go nuclear, Syria is still killing innocents and Russia is illegally expanding their borders and my opinion is it is all because of the weak indecisiveness of our leader whose red lines are now totally meaningless and the whole world now knows it.

Perspective.
Iran has been “going nuclear” for decades now.
Syria has been killing innocents for decades now. Mostly with our tacit approval.
Ask the Georgians about this “sudden” change of tactics by the Russians and I don’t see Ukraine taking potshots at the unmarked soldiers in Crimea yet. Why are we supposed to do their dirty work for them. If it is that goddam important let them make the first move. .

We are not the worlds policemen. Why is upon us to be the moral conscience of civilized western society, particularly when we are wont to pick and choose when to get our moral nose out of joint. After all it was the present Ukrainian government that overthrew a democratically elected government. We should have pitched a fit when they did that but we did not

Perhaps if we were consistent in our actions we and held ourselves to the same exacting standards we seek to impose on others, perhaps then we would have some moral standing and the worlds respect.

@Cruiser: Protect them how? Russia isn’t going to be intimidated by the U.S. showing up in its sphere anymore than the U.S. would be intimidated by a Russian fleet showing up in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. played the “moral authority to complain about pointless invasions” back in 2003. The only complaint you can register about Obama is that he wasn’t able to repair that damage, but I suspect it wasn’t even possible.

Iran and Syra are rather distractions here, but Iran has been trying to get nukes for decades. Again, not Obama’s fault. And however fucked the Syria situation is, I don’t see how you can blame Obama for it.

@Cruiser “I never said you were an Obama supporter just observing that “you cannot see the truth of the fact that Obama has thoroughly screwed up our reputation to deal effectively, decisively and credibly with international matters.”

Sure you didn’t use those exact words, but that is what you said. I would argue that you cannot see through your bullshit jingoistic, “America! Fuck Yeah!” world view to understand that there’s absolutely nothing that we can do about Russia/Ukraine/Crimea no matter who’s in office.

@Darth_Algar Even Hillary??

The issue requires “visionary leadership,” she said, adding that Europe — especially Germany — is dependent on Russia for energy.

“How far this aggressiveness goes, I think, is really up to us,” she said. “I would like to see us accelerating the development of pipelines from Azerbaijan up into Europe, I’d like to see us looking for ways to accelerate internal domestic production [in places like Poland] … and just really go at this in a self-interested, smart way. Russians can only intimidate you if you’re dependent upon them.”

Smart lady.

Yes, even Hillary. That’s a lot of talk that essentially amounts to nothing. No politician can get very far without mastering that skill, and Hillary is a very skilled politician.

@Darth_Algar I still think Hillary is one of the few who has a chance at staring down Putin. BTW…you must not be married…After 20 years of marriage I know all too well how women have a strange penchant for verbally expressing much differently what they are capable of doing IF you cross them up.

I think Pee Wee Herman could have….uh…made a more…uh…. intimidating statement than…uh….Barry Freaking unbelievable!!

What’s needed is a macho man who wrestles bears, rides horses and slings guns.

He’d look Putin in the eye and stare him down like Clint Eastwood would, and then give him a pithy line about “making his day”, or something like that. Regardless, he would be very intimidating and make Putin cower and back down.

Would this man have been Romney? It’s hard to say, but probably more so than “Barry” Hussein Obama. Romney has a strong jaw, and a mad piercing gaze that he developed as part of his Mormon upbringing—definitely scarier than Barry’s effeminate glances.

Why do I keep thinking of our old soccer cheer?

“Kill! Kill! Kill! Blood makes the grass grow!”

“Effeminate glances” is the most mature criticism you can come up with regarding Obama?

Yeesh, no wonder homophobia is still alive and well here in the good ol’ USA.

God forbid a man should appear to be sensitive and intelligent. What we really need is someone macho, pig-headed, and stubborn to usher in an Apocalyptic scenario of mutually assured destruction~~(as long as he’s properly “manly” about it.)

Good grief.

@Cruiser “BTW…you must not be married…”

More ignorant assumptions. Anymore you’d like to make?

@Buttonstc

I’m pretty sure @Kropotkin‘s post was made with a fuckton of sarcasm.

There are some easy ways to tell when right-wing (“conservative”) rhetoric is fake. An immediate red flag is literacy. Another is internal logic without external validity.

Hyperbole may not be a sign. Nor is the presence of insanity.

@Darth

Yeah, it was 3 in the morning and my sarcasm detector was asleep at the switch :) (although a tilde wouldn’t do any harm either).