Mitt Romney Doesn’t Believe He Is Running Against A President
by Bob Schwartz
A political conundrum has been solved, and the solution is a startling answer to what has been going wrong so far for the Romney-Ryan ticket.
Both candidates spent the first 24 hours of the current foreign crisis injudiciously and recklessly criticizing the President, in the face of being chastised by both Democrats and Republicans for their amateurish efforts.
The obvious question to ask both of them is what foreign policy expertise or experience informs their criticism. This would be their likely answer: well, what foreign policy expertise or experience did Barack Obama have when he took office in 2009?
Exactly. Precisely. Except for one thing. This isn’t candidate Obama they are running against. This is a man who has for four years been negotiating the wild waters of global politics, and in the view of many, though clearly not all, he isn’t doing a bad job.
That’s where the revelation came in. In a nearly literal sense, they don’t believe Barack Obama has been President for these four years. They may not subscribe to “birther” notions that would legally disqualify Obama from holding the office, though we aren’t sure of that. But functionally, they seem to believe that the smart but shallow and inexperienced young Senator who took office in 2009 is the same man they face now.
They believe they are running against young Senator Obama—or maybe even younger community organizer Obama, law student Obama, pot-smoking college student Obama. The only thing they have to do is run a better campaign than the unsuccessful John McCain did. Maybe this isn’t a clinical break from reality, enough to put their mental stability in doubt, but the effect has been to raise real questions about their political stability.
The President has tried to help them. In his speech at the Democratic National Convention, he announced loudly, plainly and unequivocally, “I am the President.” Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan apparently weren’t listening, and even if they heard, they still don’t believe.
Bob Schwartz 
Interesting point.
On the flip side though, some of their arguments not only acknowledge a president Obama, they go a step ahead and blame him for the economic falterings of the Bush administration.
He’s president when they want him to be and inexperienced when they don’t.
Frustrating, but a stark reality that you fully realize when you sit down at the dinner table with your counterparts.
This reminds me of that scene from the movie “The American President” when Michael Douglas’s character reminds his opponent that he was the president. Maybe voters need to be reminded that they’re considering voting for someone so stupid that he doesn’t know who’s in charge anywhere. He doesn’t know in his own country and didn’t know abroad. And if reporters dare to ask his people about it, they may tell them to kiss their @$$.
It’s true, I guess. Combined with the utter arrogance and cluelessness of a man who thinks his experience as a corporate raider qualifies him as a statesman, the most outrageous crap continues to come out of Romney’s mouth. I believe we’ll see just how ill prepared Romney is to be President during the upcoming debates. His practicing and rehearsing his sound bites will not hold up to a man who has been in the trenches for 4 years, governing at a one of the most difficult times in our history.