Vice President Joe Biden assailed Mitt Romney as “fundamentally wrong” and “totally out of touch” on foreign policy in a campaign speech Thursday — contrasting that to a record of President Barack Obama’s tough but right choices.
Trotting out what’s already become a well-worn campaign line, that “Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive,” Biden offered a twist: “If Governor Romney had been president, could he have used the same slogan in reverse?”
Speaking at New York University, Biden portrayed Romney’s foreign policy views as a question mark, but one who “starts with a profound misunderstanding” of the role of a commander-in-chief.
Romney said during his 2008 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination that he favored turning to the State Department for advice on foreign policy. Biden mocked the idea.
“In my view, the last thing I think we need is a president who will subcontract our foreign policy to some expert at the State Department,” the vice president said. “That kind of thinking may work for a CEO, but it cannot and will not work for a president, and it will not work for a commander-in-chief.”
The 2012 election is expected to turn on the state of the economy, which polls have shown to be overwhelmingly the biggest concern of voters.
But those same polls show that one of the areas where Obama holds a clear advantage over Romney is on foreign policy.
White House and campaign aides have denied that Biden's speech was timed to coincide with the anniversary of Bin Laden's death. The month ahead also will give Obama opportunities to show himself to voters as a leader on the world stage, with the G8 leaders summit at Camp David and a NATO summit in his hometown of Chicago.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released earlier this month showed that by a double-digit margin, voters said Obama was stronger than Romney on national security and foreign policy. But Romney had the advantage on jobs and the economy.
Biden did attempt to link the two in his speech, arguing that Obama's auto industry rescue, among other economic policies, "made us stronger not only at home, but abroad." He also argued that Romney's "loose talk" of war with Iran was in part to blame for an unsettled oil market, and thus higher gas prices at home.
But the speech was more an opportunity for Biden to testify to the president's leadership, saying Obama kept his promise to end the war in Iraq, set a clear strategy for success in Afghanistan and showed resolve in dealing with Iran and North Korea. Invoking Teddy Roosevelt's mantra to "speak softly and carry a big stick," Biden said: "I promise you: the president has a big stick."
He quoted Romney as saying in the 2008 campaign that if voters want someone who has foreign policy experience "we can simply go to the State Department" and that a president "is not a foreign policy expert."
The comment, Biden argued, showed "a profound misunderstanding of the responsibilities of the president and the commander in chief."
"That kind of thinking may work for a CEO but it will not and cannot work for a president. And it will not work for a commander in chief," he said.
The Romney campaign, in a conference call before the president's remarks, argued that Obama's foreign policy has weakened the country. Dan Senor argued that the president's track record has left the nation and its allies "exposed and isolated in a way that I have not seen in American foreign policy history for years."
"It's clear Biden has amnesia about the Obama administration's foreign policy failures whether it's alienating allies like Israel, the failed Russia reset, and emboldening adversaries like Iran and Syria that seek to undermine our nation's security. America can't afford four more years of leading from behind from President Obama," added RNC spokesperson Kirsten Kukowski.
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