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The Cable goes inside the foreign policy machine, from Foggy Bottom to Turtle Bay, the White House to Embassy Row.

Obama campaign: Romney trip shows he is failing the commander-in-chief test

Mitt Romney’s foreign trip showed that he can’t handle sensitive diplomatic situations, can’t even handle relationships with friendly countries, and therefore is failing the commander-in-chief test, according to Obama campaign representatives Robert Gibbs and Colin Kahl. "He offended our closest ally and triggered a troubling reaction in the most sensitive region in the world. He ...

By Josh Rogin

July 31, 2012, 2:32 PM

Mitt Romney's foreign trip showed that he can't handle sensitive diplomatic situations, can't even handle relationships with friendly countries, and therefore is failing the commander-in-chief test, according to Obama campaign representatives Robert Gibbs and Colin Kahl.

Mitt Romney’s foreign trip showed that he can’t handle sensitive diplomatic situations, can’t even handle relationships with friendly countries, and therefore is failing the commander-in-chief test, according to Obama campaign representatives Robert Gibbs and Colin Kahl.

"He offended our closest ally and triggered a troubling reaction in the most sensitive region in the world. He certainly didn’t prove to anyone that he passed the commander in chief test," said Gibbs, the former White House press secretary, on a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

Gibbs said the Romney campaign set extremely low expectations for the trip — and then didn’t even meet those expectations. The former Massachusetts governor did not visit any warzones or meet with any U.S. troops, Gibbs observed, as then Senator Barack Obama did when campaigning in 2008.

"Many were surprised that Mitt Romney did not take the opportunity to meet with any members of our armed forces on this trip," said Gibbs.

Gibbs also noted that Romney only took three questions from the reporters traveling with him, sparking frustration between the Romney campaign and the press corps that boiled over with profane comments from one of Romney’s aides to reporters in Poland. Obama took 25 questions on his campaign trip abroad, Gibbs said.

"He repeatedly took a pass on explaining his views on foreign policy to the American people," Gibbs said. "Romney’s auditioning to be the leader of the free world and it’s clear he is unable to represent America on the world stage."

Kahl, who served in the Obama administration for three years as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said that Romney’s suggestion that London was not ready to host the Olympics was an unforced error.

"The trip was supposed to be an easy one for Governor Romney, but he couldn’t even handle the low bar that his campaign set for him," said Kahl. "If Romney can’t handle the special relationship with Great Britain on the eve of the Olympic Games, how can he handle our enemies?"

Kahl said that Romney’s trip was devoid of specific policy proposals and that Romney has repeatedly criticized Obama’s foreign policy without spelling out exactly what he would do differently.

"The world got to see what it would be like if Mitt Romney was in charge of American foreign policy and it’s not a sight they will forget any time soon," said Kahl. "This trip casts serious doubt as to whether Governor Romney has the ability to handle the job."

Gibbs and Kahl also criticized Romney for intimating that culture had something to do with the disparity of wealth between in Israel and the Palestinian territories, comments described as racist by several Palestinian leaders.

"You have to choose your words very, very carefully and Governor Romney just didn’t do that," said Kahl. "

"It’s up to Governor Romney to explain why those comments would be helpful to resolving the conflict in the Middle East."

Kahl also defended the Obama administration’s reluctance to recognize Jerusalem as the official capital of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy there, as Romney promised to do when he was in the Jewish state.

Kahl said that the current policy that the status of Jerusalem is an issue to be negotiated between the two parties represents bipartisan consensus going back decades.

"[Romney] disagreed with past democratic administrations like Bill Clinton‘s and past Republican administrations like Ronald Reagan’s," Kahl said.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a Romney surrogate and rumored candidate to be Romney’s running mate, defended the former governor’s comments on culture and wealth in a brief interview Tuesday with The Cable.

"I think that certainly you look at the success of some countries and you wonder why are some nations that are right next door to other nations and more successful. I think America has benefited from being a melting pot of cultures," Rubio said. "There’s no way you look at Israel and not marvel at what they have accomplished — their commitment to democracy, their commitment to free enterprise, their commitment to upward mobility — and I think you find a lot of that in their culture, absolutely."

The Romney campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.

Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.

A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.

Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin