Political Hotsheet
By

Rodney Hawkins /

CBS News/ September 2, 2012, 3:11 PM

Biden: Romney "out of touch" on foreign policy

Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at West York Area High School, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012, in York, Pa.

/ AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

(CBS News) YORK, Pa. - Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday kept up his party's push to highlight its foreign-policy differences with Mitt Romney, suggesting the Republican nominee is overly eager to engage militarily in the Middle East.

"He implies by the speech that he's ready to go to war in Syria and Iran," Biden said of Romney in a speech to more than 1,000 supporters here. "And these guys say the president is out of touch?"

Though Romney did not focus on foreign policy in his Republican National Convention address -- he has come under criticism for making no reference to the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan -- he said Obama "has thrown allies like Israel under the bus" and that "every American is less secure today because he has failed to slow Iran's nuclear threat."

In addition, the former Massachusetts governor gave a tough critique of the Obama administration's foreign policy in a speech to the American Legion in Indianapolis last week. In that speech, Romney asserted his view that "a just and peaceful world depends upon our strength and our confidence," and has said he would send troops to Syria if necessary to prevent weapons of mass destruction from falling into terrorists' hands.

Biden also drew several boos from the audience when he said, "[Romney] said it was a mistake to end the war in Iraq and bring all of our warriors home. He said it was a mistake to set an end date for our warriors in Afghanistan and bring them home."

Romney has said that announcing timelines for withdrawal in Afghanistan has left allies doubting the U.S. resolve there while encouraging the Taliban to believe it could simply wait out any withdrawal. He earlier criticized the administration along similar lines in Iraq, but told the Des Moines Register's editorial board last December: "Is the wind-down in Iraq appropriate? Yes."

Most of Biden's speech, however, dealt with economic policy. Reviving the subject of the Obama administration's auto bailout, he praised the "sacrifice" of union members and said that without them, "All those GM plants would have been closed."

Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg in response pointed to several Democratic acknowledgments on Sunday talk shows that the economic recovery has been slower than they would have liked.

"Just today, President Obama's own surrogates admitted that we are not better off than we were four years ago. It's clear that we need to move in a different direction, but Vice President Biden only brought the same failed policies and tired attacks to Pennsylvania that have not turned around our economy or helped the middle class," Henneberg said in a statement.

Biden's next campaign stop during his "Road to Charlotte Tour" -- eventually leading to the Democratic National Convention -- was in Green Bay, Wis., where he spoke at the National Railroad Museum.

He attacked vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan for refusing to support the Simpson-Bowles commission's recommendations for reducing the debt as a member of that panel. Obama, however, also has been criticized for failing to embrace its findings.

"Oh, I love these guys, how they claim to care about the deficit," Biden said sarcastically. Referring to President Bill Clinton's administration, he added: "When we [Democrats] left office, [the budget] was in balance."

Henneberg faulted Biden in that appearance for offering "no solutions to our country's problems, just false attacks and failed policy proposals that have led the country in the wrong direction."

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
22 Comments Add a Comment
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BOB-C says:
Wrong, Joe, Romney is not "out of touch" on foreign policy. He is IGNORANT! You are much too kind.
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sjc_1 says:
Romney is running for president because it would look good on his life time legacy. He does not care about the country nor its people, it is about his ego and narcissism.
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The_pragmatist2 says:
Carefull...he's gonna put y'all back in chains!
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TimeToStepUp says:
CBS September 2nd 2012
* Obama: GOP agenda "better suited for the last century" by Mark Knoller
* Democratic aide: GOP thinks "lying is a virtue" by Leigh Ann Caldwell
* Biden: Romney "out of touch" on foreign policy by Rodney Hawkins
* Obama zeroes in on colleges in swing states by Nancy Cordes
* N.Y. attorney general opens probe into private equity firms, including Bain
...Though Romney collects benefits as a Bain retired partner, the inquiry isn't focused on the time he ran Bain.
...The New York Times first reported the investigation of more than a DOZEN firms. The report indicates that some observers think it is a political motivated investigation by a Democratic attorney general with relations with President Obama...
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RealiteBites says:
Weak argument for several reasons:

1. People have always preferred Governors for President
2. The economy's the number one issue, not foreign affairs
3. Barack didn't have any foreign policy experience when he was elected President.
4. Biden's got a ton of foreign policy experience, and look how much of a disaster of a person he is ... so clearly that experience isn't everything ...
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cubscout09 says:
Romney can whine all he wants to about Israel, but, Romney's super-donor, Sheldon Adelson, is resented in Israel, because, he has tried to use his wealth to influence Israeli politics, much as he has here in the USA. I don't believe that Israel wants what Mitt is offering.
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Repubs_R_Fiscal_Liberals says:
We're broke.

He wants more military, another war, AND to lower taxes at the same time.

How in the world did he hold onto a single dime he made, with that kind of thinking???
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sjc_1 replies:
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Reagan spent much more on the military, cut taxes for the wealthy and TRIPLED the national debt. Then he wanted you to believe that 2 out of 3 was not bad.
cubscout09 replies:
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Funny, how the 16" Gun barrel from the Iowa Class Battleships that Reagan refurbished turned out to be more effective when dropped from an F-15. (See: 600 Ship Navy) And when Reagan cut his budget in half by eliminating the MX Missile system, he still had the largest budget in history. I, for one, really don't want to repeat the mistakes of the 80s.
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sjc_1 says:
Romney knows NOTHING about foreign policy. Off shoring jobs is NOT foreign policy. Playing currency arbitrage is NOT foreign policy. Going to London and making an idiot of yourself is NOT foreign policy.
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cubscout09 replies:
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Irony is, Bain deals with China and Iran as Romney rattles his saber at them. In other words, he is using his campaign to make threats against his business partners. I'm not entirely sure that irony is the correct word.
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LEAVA12 says:
Is obama a socialist marxist or communist ?

Please look at the democratic movement in the Middle East then everybody should know who Obama is. Now read this essay then you may have some more idea....Did Obama have any plan of confiscating the property of the rich and the middle class? Did Obama promote Human Right and Democracy in the Middle East and Asia? Are China and Vietnam communist countries?

A Misconception of Raising the Tax Bracket for Millionaires

There has been a misconception that raising the tax bracket for millionaires essentially amounts to a redistribution of wealth. Indeed the Buffet Rule is not a redistribution of wealth. This negative and misleading political statement has indeed created a state of panic and paranoia among uneducated and rich voters because they are confusing the usage of "redistribution of wealth" in the sense of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 with Senator Obama's usage of "redistribution of wealth" in the sense of free enterprise and American democracy. A politician's negative remarks in 2008 have triggered conservative talk show hosts to mislead the American people by labelling Senator Obama's economic policy as a "socialist" policy. They went further and labelled Senator Obama as a communist in 2008. The truth is that the Bolshevik redistribution of wealth is the confiscation of all private property of affluent people and the redistribution of this property to poorer people, based on the historical facts of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. The Russian communist government used literature as propaganda - describing political and economic change only in a positive light. Nevertheless, during the 1950's and 1960's many Russian liberal authors such as Boris Pasternak, who wrote a masterpiece "Doctor Zhivago" in 1957, attacked the doctrine of communism. A solid example of a Bolshevik redistribution in recent history is the action of the Vietnamese communist government in confiscating the property of rich and middle class Vietnamese in 1975 after conquering South Vietnam. On the contrary, Senator Obama's meaning of the term "redistribution of wealth" for positive change is merely a change in the rate of income tax. Specifically, Senator Obama's economic policy is to reduce the income tax for at least 90% of Americans, who have an income of less than 250,000 US$, and a proportional income tax increase for the wealthy people.
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Lucky12345678 says:
bring out those chains Joe...
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