Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, (D), who is also Senate majority whip, said Mitt Romney was no match for President Barack Obama’s strong, decisive foreign policy — a fact he believes is made clear by Republican reactions to the candidates debate performances Monday night.
Durbin said in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV that it was clear that Romney is not all that familiar with foreign policy and seemed to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what his opinion was during the course of the debate.
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“When the Republican critics go in to style points, that’s all they want to talk about, the substance is killing them,” Durbin said. “I look back on some of the things [Romney] said. Most of the time he’s either agreeing with the President or trying to sort out some confusing thing he said during the campaign so I don’t think it was a strong night for him. I don’t think foreign policy is his strong suit.”
Durbin pointed to Obama’s completion of the George W. Bush plan to bring American troops home from Iraq, as well as his plan to bring troops home from Afghanistan by 2014, as two things that Romney has criticized at different points in the campaign but tonight agreed with.
The high point of the debate for Obama, Durbin said, came when he told the story of his first trip to Israel during the 2008 Presidential campaign and visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, as well as areas that have been bombed by Hamas in recent years. Durbin said these experiences have guided the way the President has led on foreign policy.
“When he was asked point blank, he said “‘yes, an attack on Israel is an attack on the United States,’” Durbin said. “And they should know that.”
He said it did not appear to be a strong night for Romney because foreign policy is not his main focus, where Obama has had to focus on it significantly during the last four years.
“Which of these leaders would you follow into battle?” Durbin asked rhetorically. “If it was a question of national security and the future of America, which one was more decisive and strong? Pretty clear to me.”
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