Obama, Romney spat shows deep divisions over Russia

CBS

(CBS News) The kerfuffle that emerged after President Obama said he would be better able to negotiate with Russia over a divisive missile defense program after the election is fresh evidence of a long-standing rift between the two major parties on how to deal with the former Cold War adversary.

Three years after the Obama administration called for a "reset" of relations with Russia, White House hopeful Mitt Romney slammed the president for saying during a "hot mic" moment with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have "more flexibility" after the November elections to negotiate on a U.S. missile defense shield in Europe. Romney called the remarks "terribly wrong" and "alarming."

"This is without question our number one geopolitical foe, they fight every cause for the world's worst actors, the idea that he has some more flexibility in mind for Russia is very, very troubling indeed," Romney said in an interview with CNN. "The idea that our president is planning on doing something with them that he's not willing to tell the American people before the election is something I find very, very alarming."

Medvedev, in South Korea with Mr. Obama for a meeting with nearly 50 global leaders at a nuclear security summit, admonished the former Massachusetts governor on Tuesday, saying "it is 2012, not the mid-1970s" and that the U.S. and Russia are not the enemies they once were. He said the candidate's comments "smelled of Hollywood" and urged Romney to "use his head."

While that may be true, Romney's comment that Russia is the "number one geopolitical foe" of the United States nonetheless reveals a tension over how to deal with Russia from both Democrats and Republicans.

Romney's comments are just political posturing, said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear weapons expert who teaches at Georgetown University and is an advocate for reducing the world's nuclear arsenal.

"It is not anything different than other presidents have said in the past about their plans for after the election when they have a new mandate. Everybody knows this. Everybody understands this," said Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund. Cirincione serves on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's International Security Advisory Board.

Cirincione said "nuclear hawks" in Washington want to pressure Mr. Obama on the missile defense shield as a way preventing cuts the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

"Outside the political realm, there is broad bipartisan agreement, military security establishment, we do not need the huge nuclear arsenal we now have. It is ill suited to the threats we actually face. Once it gets political, then somehow cutting nuclear weapons is associated with weakness and concessions and appeasement," he said.

Stephen Rademaker, who served as a top State Department official on nuclear issues under President George W. Bush, called Mr. Obama's statement "astonishing."

Rademaker said the president's off-guard comments reveal his true intentions to downgrade the capability of the missile defense system.

"He wasn't saying let's postpone this because this is really hard," Rademaker said, referring to Mr. Obama. "He was saying leave me alone for a year and I will come back to you with a better proposal."

And he said voters should be troubled by that because it is a candid admission that the president is willing to make concessions to the Russians after the election that he thinks would hurt his chances for re-election if they were implemented before November.

Mr. Obama pushed back against those charges, telling reporters in Seoul that he was not "hiding the ball" from U.S. voters.

"I don't think it's any surprise that you can't start that a few months before a presidential and congressional election in the United States," Mr. Obama said.

Rademaker said it should not surprise anyone that Republican candidates would "jump all over" Mr. Obama's comments, given their context shows Mr. Obama was talking about more than just missile defense.

Rademaker is an informal, unpaid adviser to the Romney campaign but stressed to CBS News that his comments only represent his personal opinions and do not reflect the campaign's views in any way.

Romney, Gingrich blast Obama for hot mic missile defense comments
Obama asks Russia for "space" on missile defense
Obama: I'm not "hiding the ball" on Russia

[RobAla]

What blows me away is the fact there are still so many Americans who support President Obama. Most Americans hate his health care law, the fact that he refuses to control our borders, he dumb foreign policies, his failed economic policies, and his idiotic and irresponsible energy policies. So, what is it that attracts people to President Obama? I guess it is his nice smile. God help us.

[KarlStalin]

Obama's not shooting straight with the American people. By telling Mr. Medvedev and his patron, the once-and-future Russian President Vladimir Putin, that he will have 'flexibility' after the American election on Russian demands opposing a U.S. missile defense for Europe, Mr. Obama is in effect saying he is ready to do something the Russians will like but that the American people won't. Maybe We the people are getting ready to do something that Obama won't like....vote him out of office.

[KarlStalin]

-----------------VOTE CONSERVATIVE 2012------------

[fairbroj19]

Hello, does anyone know what this CBS jerk is talking about? WHERE are the US "defensive" missiles going to be placed? As far as I know, ALL of the countries in Eastern Europe have refused to be sites.

US may place more weapons and missiles in Georgia, with the psycho president Shaakashvili who invades his neighbors and bombs their apartment buildings? Good move, US

[Lanche25]

Hmm sounds like People as to what Russia represents in our future and our past. I don't know if any of you liberals have read the bible or not but there is a little known factoid in there where it states the Eagle will be attacked by the Bear. So whether you gullible idiots believe it or not. They are our enemies and at some point and time will probably attack us.

[Lindag10]

Does Romney think Russia is the "evil empire" or something? It's a mere shadow of what it used to be and since we all live on the same planet we'd be much better off trying to get with each instead of making threats and rattling weapons. We can't just "nuke" everyone we don't agree with or the planet will be uninhabitable.

[Lindag10]

oops: meant "get along with each other". (bad,bad spellcheck)

[rtm1331]

Please don't show your abject ignorance. Russia still has a nuclear arsenal roughly equal to the United States. Russia also has a long history of support and sponsorship for Iran (you remember them, that's the people who said that they would obliterate Isreal, and the United States once they perfected the atomic bomb) Russia may not be communist anymore, but they are certainly no friend to the United States. Just where did you get the idea we are going to "nuke" anyone? The United States has NEVER started any war, and only used nuclear weapons once, on Japan. This decision was made by Harry Truman, when it was widely recognized that continuing the war with Japan through invasion of their home territory would cost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides of the conflict. History has ordained that he made the right decision.

[msimamaji]

Romney's comments show that he is phenomenally out of touch with the rest of the world.

Modern Russia is actually a Dick Cheney paradise, where oil company billionaires run everything. In Moscow, if you are a billionaire, you don't count as a human being. You must be a multi-billionaire in order to belong.

In the mean time millions of people in Russia are condemned to poverty. Some of these millions wish the Communists were back. Others have turned to a frightening form of racism that matches the KKK. (Yes, Russia also has a problem with undocumented workers, mostly from Central Asia. And yes, just like America, undocumented workers are cheated and exploted by their employers.)

Romney and the GOP once again are showing that they are incapable of governing. Do NOT vote for these crazies.

[wfw3536]

If you want any insight into how Obama will run our country the next four years, just watch this tape and the body language. It shows a president who is begging the Russians to just give him some more time until after the election. You have to wonder what other countries he has begged to wait until after the election. Wait until his next term and all of the new regulations he will put in when he doesn't have to worry about being re-elected.

[peajayach]

Body language suggests what most people accept as inevitable is actually nonsense, thus reading body language is by and large, in the eye of the beholder...the only reality is what we perceive.

[RobAla]

Spat????? Is that what CBS calls this????

CBS: Three years after the Obama administration called for a "reset" of relations with Russia, White House hopeful Mitt Romney slammed the president for saying during a "hot mic" moment with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have "more flexibility" after the November elections to negotiate on a U.S. missile defense shield in Europe. Romney called the remarks "terribly wrong" and "alarming."

We should ask ourselves why President Obama has to conceal what he plans to do with the US missile defense until after the election. Wasn't his administration supposed be the transparent one? He doesn't want to hide his intentions from the Russians; President Obama wants to hide his intentions from American voters until after the election.

It's because President Obama knows that if the American people knew he would buckle under and give the Russians what they want, he would not be elected. Iran is building nukes and missiles to carry them. Pakistan (with it's arsenal of nuclear weapons) could easily be taken over by radical Muslim extremists. Any President who thinks it is wise to dismantle the US missile defense program is incredibly naive. Not many Americans would feel comforted by the idea of dismantling missile defense. President Obama's words to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are truly alarming. This should send chills down the back of every American.

[Atlanticum]

Why, oh why do people like you have to bore us with a 200 word response? Especially using trite old sayings like.."chills down the back of every american"...and..."we should ask ourselves".

??
Your point escapes me.

[bilrobi1]

So far he hasn't buckled to Russia. He hasn't buckled to North Korea. He didn't buckle with Osama. He didn't buckle to Libya.The concept of "negotiating" is totally foreign to the right.

[RobAla]

We should ask ourselves why President Obama has to conceal what he plans to do with the US missile defense until after the election. Wasn't his administration supposed be the transparent one?

It's because President Obama knows that if the American people knew he would buckle under and give the Russians what they want, he would not be elected. Iran is building nukes and missiles to carry them. Pakistan (with it's arsenal of nuclear weapons) could easily be taken over by radical Muslim extremists. Any President who thinks it is wise to dismantle the US missile defense program is incredibly naive. Not many Americans would feel comforted by the idea of dismantling missile defense. President Obama's words to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are truly alarming.

[notreich]

So he said it would be better to negogiate after the elections? Gee, bet that's never been said before. But yet another nothing thing for the candidates to wail and gnash their about.