Mitt Romney in Poland
It seemed like a pretty straightforward photo-op. After a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at Gdansk’s historic town hall, Mitt Romney stopped to talk to a large and enthusiastic crowd of local residents of this Baltic port city made forever famous as the birthplace of “Solidarity.” But even here, five thousand miles away from America, this informal occasion ended up feeling like the campaign trail back home, with some of the gathered chanting “Obama” while a few members of the New Right Congress held up a banner with a likeness of Ron Paul and a caption “Polish choice.” Romney campaign workers unsuccessfully tried to obscure the banner with their red umbrellas.
At least that’s what the media focused on. If, as P.J. O’Rourke once said, journalists follow the president waiting for him to take a fall or say the F-word, Romney certainly got the foretaste of the high office and the scribes got their stumbles and profanity, or at least an “ass.”
Romney’s overseas trip was meant to enhance his foreign policy cred, in what has otherwise been a very domestically focused election campaign. The choice of the destinations, the tripod of old and new allies in Europe and the Middle East, was carefully chosen to contrast and compare Mitt’s approach with that of President Obama, who has managed to repeatedly snub all three.
Poland, the last leg of Romney’s trip, is becoming a serious player in European politics, due to its size as well as the robustness of its economy, which has so far bucked the doom-and-gloom trend of the rest of the continent. Polish elites in general are both Atlanticist and European in their outlook; the sentiments that often don’t sit easily together. The population, disenchanted by the involvement in both Iraq and Afghanistan and by the continuing refusal of the U.S. to grant them the same visa treatment as accorded to other allies, is increasingly cynical of America; a great pity for a country with such rich history of trans-Atlantic connections and sympathies. “The relations with the U.S. are at their lowest point in twenty years,” observed Polish daily Rzeczpospolita. “It can only get better.”
“Why Poland?” asked Polish commentators Michał Kolanko and Paulina Kozłowska. “Because President Obama withdrew from the proposed missile shield and announced it on September 17 [the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939]. Because Obama misspoke about the ‘Polish death camps.’ The Romney campaign decided that Poland will be a good destination as it will serve to remind of the fact that Obama ignores allies and forgets about them. … Romney’s visit is to show that in contrast to the current president, Romney will look after allies, even smaller ones like Poland.”
Romney needed some good press after critiquing the organization of the London Olympics, never a good way to win friends and influence people, even if it’s the same Olympics whose opening ceremony glorified the British public health system. (When I think of the UK’s contribution to the world I tend to think of parliamentary democracy, limited government, industrial revolution, abolition of slavery, and the fight against Nazism and communism. But maybe none of these are easily translated into a pageant involving Mr. Bean.)
After London, meeting with Lech Walesa must have seemed God-sent. Walesa, the leader of the “Solidarity” movement, Obama’s fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner, and a former president of independent Poland, is a perfect exemplar of the old Biblical adage that no one is a prophet in his own country. A controversial and polarizing figure at home, the former electrician turned a living symbol of the victorious struggle against communism nevertheless still retains some of his old-time mystique abroad. If Romney was hoping for some of it to rub off onto him, Walesa did not disappoint.
“He radiates values,” Walesa said about his American guest. “I see many similarities between the two of us. … Mitt Romney made a good impression on me.”
“It’s too early to declare support for this candidate. … I can’t get involved in internal American affairs,” Walesa protested too much before finally letting the world know what he really thinks: “I see [in Romney] a man who has the same philosophy as me – that the world should be build on values. … I can’t say the same about the other candidate [Obama].”
Had Romeny flown back home from Gdansk, his trip would have ended on a high note. But there were still a few important engagements awaiting in Warsaw, including a meeting with the American Enterprise Institute alumnus and current foreign minister Radek Sikorski, as well as a major foreign policy speech designed, in the breathless prose of the London Guardian, to “rekindle cold war spirit”.
As it turned out, the most influential Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza opined that all that Americans will remember from Romney’s trip to Poland will be Walesa and the “Kiss my ass” comment by Romney’s media man Rick Gorka.
In Gorka’s defense, Romney had just spoken to war veterans and put flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument made all the more sacred by the sheer number of unknown soldiers in Poland’s bloody history. Timing was poignant too, on the eve of the anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. When the traveling media started shouting questions at Romney about gaffes, breaking the spell of what has otherwise been a quiet and somber event, Gorka snapped: “Kiss my ass, this is a holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect.” Ill-advised but understandable.
Nomen omen, as Romans used to say; Gorka’s name means “little mountain” in Polish. Romney’s overseas foray might have been somewhat of an uphill affair, but let’s hope the view from the top will be worth it.
The performance of the JournOlists on Romney’s trip afford a measure of the servile level of their abandonment of principled journalism. They are openly demonstrating to the citizens of the nations he is visiting and to American voters that their sole focus is “gaffes” and that, if he doesn’t make one they’ll create one. What bogles the mind is the great pride they take in identifying themselves as Running Dogs, slavering as they sniff for blood.
Like the object of their veneration, their performance is probably hurting their cause more than helping. Waleska’s star may have faded but he is still highly respected. His flat statement went away beyond just saying Mitt was OK: it was a deliberate criticism of Obama. Man, was that a gaffe! He’ll go right to the top of the Great Leader’s hit list.
To quote another President, “You Forgot About Poland!”
Democrats laughed at that line from the 2004 debate, but they cried later. A name-check of “Poland” is pure gold in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Romney went to Poland and paid his respects to the Polish people. That pilgrimage will have real meaning and value among voters in the American Midwest.
Even the insulting phrase, “kiss my ass,” is much used in the Polish-American community. So it’s all good.
Frankly, MItt’s guy earned high marks for telling the press “kiss my ass”.
I often check Google News to find out about breaking news and saw an article there yesterday about Romney’s trip to Poland saying that it was very ironic that Romney was touting his own policies as the model that Poland had followed; the article insisted that Poland was actually much closer to following Obama’s policies. They claimed that the Polish government is highly interventionist in the economy and had spent 44% of GDP on social programs vs. 41% for the US. I didn’t even recognize the source of the story – it was digital-something – digitallife.com maybe? digitalnews.com? – and found myself surprised that something whose title suggested a tech blog was doing straight news reporting with a leftist slant to boot.
Does anyone know anything about the Polish economy and what sorts of things they are doing? How socialistic is it? I’m really not clear on how much support there is for socialist measures in Poland. After 40+ years of Soviet occupation, I would have thought there would be very little residual belief in government-based solutions to problems….
Poland isn’t particularly socialistic, and the state there is shrinking over time. Even their left party only suggests slowing the pace of privatization of leftover state institutions from the soviet days. They have, from what I know, a top tax rate of 32 percent, with a lower band of 18 percent. They have socialized healthcare, but with a large private healthcare sector as well. Support for outright socialism and state driven economics is low, with the two largest parties both supporting shrinking the state further.
Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła
This trip was well planned to contrast Romney’s awareness of and support for America’s traditional values and allies with BHO’s policies.
We MUST make better inroads into Eastern Europe, especially Poland. Not only because this would give Russia a hard time, but these countries have traditionally acted as a buffer between eastern and western Europe. I would go even one step further. I would do everything in our power to become good allies with the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. This would not only give us a great strategic advantage against the Russians, but we could also build a trading partnership with some good up-and-coming small nations. I don’t think any of these ideas are lost on Romney and good for him. We need a more strategically-minded president, rather than Obama who seems only obsessed with domestic policy.
“never a good way to win friends and influence people, even if it’s the same Olympics whose opening ceremony glorified the British public health system. (When I think of the UK’s contribution to the world I tend to think of parliamentary democracy, limited government, industrial revolution, abolition of slavery, and the fight against Nazism and communism. But maybe none of these are easily translated into a pageant involving Mr. Bean.)”
You may want to re-think Romney’s trip and his comment when viewed through the prism of the biased MSM which many have embraced including many know it all concservatives. Take the UK in two ways. First this country is a great example of liberalism and leftyism gone wild. They are a nation in decline who need to charter British Airways to drop SAS teams in times of war. They have gutted their military budget to fund the great society. Oh I forgot the fact that the BBC leads the world in biased lefty reporting. Their NHS is a disgrace to the word healthcare and is exactly the wrong solution for any country including the USA. What a rediculous opening ceremony about the NHS. In short the UK is a country on the “road to serfdom”. Their preparations are for shit, they called in the military to supplement their pathetic security, they are knee deep in a ticket scandal like where are all the people and why are half the venues empty? These olympics may be saved by the great athletes and NOT by this bunch of english BOZOS. Sooo Romeny’s comment were TRUE! Secondly Romney did not go to Israel or Poland to impress the scum bag reporters who were tagging along looking for GAFFES! These people are a disgrace especially when they are hectoring and yelling at the press secretary while attending a ceremony commemorating the war dead. What a pathetic bunch of losers and why in the hell do you give a damm what these reporters in the bag for Obama scum think anyway. It seems that the heads of state of both countries were impressed. So am I. Who are you reporting for and why??
You forgot to mention all the great British writers….and the actors. Where would PBS be without Masterpiece Theater, Morse, and Agatha Christie….and Churchill…a man in a class by himself.
The British press had to say something about Romney who may have spoken one of the only truths about the Olympics. They will never credit him for honesty. .He also spoke the truth about the difference in culture between the Palestinians and the Israelis. How many of the Palestinians have discovered a vacine which conquored polio or won a Nobel prize in a field which counted for something?
I would probably can the aide who said, “Kiss my ass” but I am not Polish and I don’t use expressions like that. Apparently it had international understanding though.
I think Mr. Romney is an honest man who is pretty reserved. I prefer that to being a slick gadfly like Clinton. I would like to feel safe, physically and financially, before the Russians, led by Putin, rev up the cold war.
A pleasure to read this article after reading Yahoo News for the last several days and watching them attack Romney at every turn. It would be nice if PJMedia would run an expose of Yahoo News for what it is, liberal left wing reporting completely in the tank for Obama.
It would work better if you didn’t click on Wayhoo nooz and thus deprive them of ad revenue…
There are other ways to find out what is going on in the world around you. It may take more work and effort but it is said that anything worth having is worth working for.
The thing to remember about Britain is that it’s media and elites are even more leftish that ours. I’ll bet that the common Brit however is thinking exactly what MItt had the courage to say.
This link (somewhere in PJMedia articles?) is quite telling re: your comment.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/245995/Two-finger-salute.html
Apparently, the UK was trying to re-write/ignore the history and relevance of Winston Churchill. Check out those comments as well. Unbelievable.
Does anyone know the names of the reporters and who they work for? Especially that screaching female!
Good analysis; Mitt Romney’s trip to Poland (and Britain and Israel) will have the necessary effect of showing the world that Romney is loyal to his friends. Not something that can easily be dismissed.
The fact of the matter is, that we may have a US president that holds a strong belief that there is super intelligent, world creating being that is concerned with his underwear choices.
http://doodiepants.com/2012/08/03/mitt-romneys-magic-mormon-underwear/