CNN 2012-08-01

 Well, Mitt¹ Romney is in Poland tonight, the final stop on a three-country trip that's made headlines, some favorable, others not so much.

 

 

 

His remarks on the Olympics angered some British. He walked them back. His remarks in Israel on why the Palestinians haven't done as well economically as Israelis angered Palestinians. Culture, he said, makes all the difference.

 

 

 

He praised the Israeli health care system, his critics point out, in comparison with Americans. But he didn't mention that the Israeli system is government run. Something he's obviously opposed to here at home. He clarified earlier remarks also about Russia to Wolf Blitzer.

 

 

 

The last time you and I spoke² in an interview, you told me that Russia was America's number one geostrategic foe³. Do you still believe that?

 

 

 

Well, there's no question, but that, in terms of geopolitics, I'm talking about votes at the United Nations and the actions of a -- of a geopolitical nature.

 

 

 

Russia is the number one adversary⁴ in that regard. That doesn't make them an enemy. It doesn't make them a combatant. They don't represent the number one national security threat. The number one national security threat, of course, to our nation is a nuclear Iran.

 

 

 

Mr. Romney has drawn⁵ praise from conservatives for his line on Iran as well as his vocal⁶ support for Israel.

 

 

 

As for the trip so far, two questions. First, how will it affect his chance in November if at all? And second, what does it say, if anything, about how he'd run foreign policy if elected?

 

 

 

Let's talk about the "Raw Politics" with the Republican strategist, Ari Fleischer, an unpaid⁷ occasional adviser⁸ to the Romney campaign, and board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition⁹.

 

 

 

Also with us, Cornell Belcher, a pollster for the Obama 2012 campaign.

 

 

 

Ari, do you think that Governor Romney did what he needed to do overseas? Do you think it's going to help him in long term? 

 

 

 

In Israel, he certainly did. You know, I do have to say, even though I think it's been ridiculous, seems exaggerated, and it's been going on now for five days, he did a mistake in England and it cost him the opportunity to bask¹⁰ in the glow of the Olympics. But if he was running for prime minister, it might hurt him. He was, he's running for president.

 

 

 

In Israel, I think he knocked it out the ballpark. I think if the issue there is the impact this trip will have on the Jewish community in the United States, calling Jerusalem the capital is what those American Jews who vote on the basis of foreign policy and defense¹¹ will remember from this trip, and also today, of course Lech Walesa giving him a virtual endorsement¹².

 

 

 

You know, that's, I think, the power of the trip for him.

 

 

 

Cornell, one of your campaign surrogates, former Ambassador Tim Roemer, questioned Romney's ability to be commander in chief, saying quote "If he can't engage our allies on a simple topic like the international Olympics, how is he going to be tough enough to stand up to our gravest enemies like Iran?"

 

 

 

Romney, though, was pretty tough on Iran in his speech in Israel. In fact, he articulated a policy. It sounded pretty similar to President Obama's. Is that really then a fair criticism?

 

 

 

Well, here's the problem.

 

 

 

I mean, and you - and CNN has been covering it for two days now - it is gaffe¹³ after gaffe. I mean, you leave Israel, you know, with after insulting the Palestinians. And here's the problem, if you're in fact President Romney, the problem is, you've now offended the Palestinians. And they don't see you as a fair arbitrator.

 

 

 

So in fact he - President Romney would set the peace process back in the Middle East. But to step back from sort of the politics back and forth¹⁴ of it, from a campaign standpoint, I know we want to say that, you know, this one is or that one incident, this gaffe or that gaffe, isn't problematic. But at this point, it's become accumulative. I mean, there is an aggregate¹⁵ problem here, after gaffe after gaffe.

 

 

 

And at some point from just a purely¹⁶ campaign standpoint, I have to pile on with what some Republicans were saying a couple of weeks back, you know, like some of the campaign itself is problematic because some of these statements that are coming out right now should never been green lighted, like the whole line that, the cultural line in the Palestinian stuff.

 

 

 

Someone along the process should have said, there's a way to talk about Israeli exceptionalism without offending its neighbors around them. So that becomes problematic. And no, you're not going to sort of win the presidency¹⁷ on foreign policy. But you can be hurt and undermined by it and this trip has not helped him.

1 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 foe   

n.敌人，仇敌

参考例句：

• He knew that Karl could be an implacable foe.他明白卡尔可能会成为他的死敌。
• A friend is a friend;a foe is a foe;one must be clearly distinguished from the other.敌是敌，友是友，必须分清界限。

4 adversary   

adj.敌手，对手

参考例句：

• He saw her as his main adversary within the company.他将她视为公司中主要的对手。
• They will do anything to undermine their adversary's reputation.他们会不择手段地去损害对手的名誉。

5 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

6 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

7 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

8 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

9 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

10 bask   

vt.取暖，晒太阳，沐浴于

参考例句：

• Turtles like to bask in the sun.海龟喜欢曝于阳光中。
• In winter afternoons,he likes to bask in the sun in his courtyard.冬日的午后，他喜欢坐在院子晒太阳。

11 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

12 endorsement   

n.背书；赞成，认可，担保；签(注)，批注

参考例句：

• We are happy to give the product our full endorsement.我们很高兴给予该产品完全的认可。
• His presidential campaign won endorsement from several celebrities.他参加总统竞选得到一些社会名流的支持。

13 gaffe   

n.（社交上令人不快的）失言，失态

参考例句：

• I had no idea of the gaffe which I was committing.我不清楚我犯了什么错误。
• He made an embarrassing gaffe at the convention last weekend.他在上周末的会议上出了洋相，狼狈不堪。

14 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

15 aggregate   

adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合

参考例句：

• The football team had a low goal aggregate last season.这支足球队上个赛季的进球总数很少。
• The money collected will aggregate a thousand dollars.进帐总额将达一千美元。

16 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

17 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。