Neither President Barack Obama nor Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney distinguished himself in reacting to this week’s violence in the Mideast, says
Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan.
And what Romney must do is offer a clear vision of his foreign policy ideas, she writes. He was too concerned with style – looking presidential – and not enough with substance in stating his views Wednesday, Noonan says.
“Everyone in politics is too visual,” she writes. “But the thoughts, content, meaning — these are given secondary attention, when in fact they are everything. Get that right and all else will follow.”
It’s difficult for Republican candidates, because the mainstream media is biased in favor of liberals, the former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan acknowledges.
“That means Republicans who win have to break through the prism with the force of their thoughts, their words, their philosophy,” she says. “This is hard. The picture is part of it. But the rest is the heart of it.”
So what should Romney provide? “A serious statement about America's role and purpose in the world,” Noonan writes. “If such a statement contained an intellectually serious critique of the president's grand strategy, or lack of it, all the better. As far as I can tell, that strategy largely consists of spurts of emotion and calculation from his closest aides, and is not a strategy but an inbox.”
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