Late last week Mittens blabbed that he had met privately in San Francisco with the Australian foreign minister, Bob Carr. And in this private meeting, Carr had told him the rest of the world sees America in decline. When I read this, I remember thinking this is the last time a foreign leader would tell Mittens anything in confidence. But it turns out Carr probably didn’t say anything of the sort. The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
So imagine Senator Carr’s surprise when he gets off the plane tomorrow to find out that Governor Romney has been using the meeting as political ammunition against his presidential rival.
According to the Republican presidential hopeful, Senator Carr also touched on America’s economic vulnerabilities during their chat.
“I met today with the Foreign Minister of Australia. He said something, and I said ‘Can I quote you?’ and he said yes. He said, ‘America is just one budget deal away from ending all talk of America being in decline,”’ Governor Romney told attendees at a fundraiser today.
”And this idea of America in decline, it was interesting [Carr] said that, he led the talk of America being in decline. See that’s not talk we hear about here as much as they’re hearing there. And if they’re thinking about investing in America, entrepreneurs putting their future in America, if they think America’s in decline they’re not gonna do it.”
The repeated comments can be seen as a not-so veiled attack on US President Barack Obama and his handling of the economy.
Carr says he said no such thing. Of course, Carr’s denials could be disingenuous. Maybe he said what Romney says he said, but didn’t expect the remarks to become public and is now walking the comment back to smooth over relations with this U.S. But now people who know something about Australian politics and Mr. Carr are saying there is no way Carr said what Mittens says he said.
In Australia, there is no political party as extreme as the modern GOP and Carr is a member of the Labor Party, which is the more left wing of our two party system and well to the left of the Democratic Party. He could never say so, but Bob Carr will be hoping for an Obama victory in November. Third, Carr is a seasoned and wily politician, who rarely uses words loosely. He was the longest serving Premier of NSW, our most populous state. He would have been very careful about what he said to Romney.
Like most Australians, he probably does think that America is in decline (not irreversibly, but the evidence is pretty clear), but there is no way he would say that to a conservative politician on US soil. His account of what he said to Romney is likely to be accurate. Finally, Carr knows more about US politics than most American politicians. I’m serious. He is a charter member of the Charles A Arthur Society. Carr did not blithely stumble into US domestic politics in the way Romney suggested.
Romney picked the wrong guy to use as a political pawn.
Except that Romney will no doubt work the “America is in decline” story into his stump speech, and will repeat it ad nauseum until the convention, because that’s the kind of guy he is — a serial liar.
But I’m going to toss out one other possibility, which is that Mitt is correctly describing what he heard Bob Carr say. That’s not to say Bob Carr said what Mittens said he said; it’s that Mittens hears what he wants to hear. Incoming data are scrambled to fit Mitt’s views as soon as they enter his brain.
So it’s entirely possible that Mittens took Bob Carr’s words and imposed his own opinions onto them, his primary opinion being that he, the Glorious Mittens, is all-wise and uniquely qualified to lead America out of whatever darkness he sees it in.
This leads us into the metaphysical question of whether Mittens is actually lying if he believes what he says to be true. Whatever. Either way, the thought of Mittens in the White House ought to scare the stuffing out of all of us.
Question: if Bob Carr is a member of the Labor Party, and the Labor Party is to the left of the Democratic Party, why was he holding meetings with Kissinger and Rice and Romney?
There is no way to paint this as a pretty picture.
And there’s nothing to stop Mitt from being BOTH a liar, AND delusional.
Especially not with our cowardly, compliant, and complicit MSM.
I can see Chuckles the Clown Todd, Disco-dancin’ Dave, Civil War correspondent, Bob Schieffer, and, of course, our sycophantic pals over at FOX, doing their best right now trying to figure out how to gloss this over – and that’s IF they even cover it in the first place.
There’s something seriously wrong with Mitt Romney.
No.
There A LOT seriously wrong with Mitt Romney!
But, will the MSM mention it, or try to keep it a close dressage contest until November?
I’d bet everything I have on the latter.
Too bad that ain’t much…
FSM monster help us if Mitt wins.
He combines the mendacity of Richard Nixon, the mindlessness of Ronald Reagan, and the very entitled, but clue-free, “leadership” style of George W. Bush.
Throw Carr under the bus to make a talking point? You would think Mitt, with all his waffling, would understand the concept of diplomacy. I guess not.
Besides, I thought it was anathema for GOP-er’s to say America was in decline or was anything less than “chosen by the Sky Fairy”. Surely, he can’t be blaming Obama for Bush’s two wars and lack of bank oversight?
There’s a third possibility. If Mitt Romney is in fact a disturbingly lifelike automaton, then it could be that he’s neither lying nor delusional. The question then becomes whether there’s some kind of virus in his operating system, or if endlessly repeating falsehoods is the behavior his designers intended.
If he’s a lifelike automaton (and he is clearly in that “uncanny valley” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley), he never added the “three Laws of Robotics” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics), because , if elected, he would be at odds with the first Law.
Interesting that not one conservative (count on it) will upbraid Romney for saying that America is in decline. Conservatives say this all the time, and castigate liberals for supposedly (but not actually) saying it, but they are very selective in their criticisms.
Stephen – Romney is probably a pathological liar – a person who is incapable of knowing that he’s lying. One could say that he believes the lies that he tells are the truth. Listen carefully (and watch his body language carefully) to him (if you can stand it) and I think you’ll pick it up.
Anthrosciguy; Yep, them librals only say stuff about America cuz THEY HATE ‘MERICA!!!
But conservatives say stuff about America because they “Love” America.
I get brain cramps when I think of such things.
Well, Mitt will be off to Europe and the UK next week to pay hommage to the global banking cartel and to visit the Nazi death camps to lay some flowers. He will then go to Israel, where he will praise Israel and suck on Bibi to get the Jewish vote (2%?).
Since I can remember, it is REQUIRED to go to Israel, slap on a beanie and go to the wall if you want to be POTUS; curious, but true.Oh well, we are what we eat.
This leads us into the metaphysical question of whether Mittens is actually lying if he believes what he says to be true.
So now Rmoney is falling back on the Geroge Costanza defense: “It’s not a lie if you believe it”.
Is it possible Carr did say this, but in the context of remarks that made it clear it was conservative intransigence that would be the cause of the decline? I’m still more inclined to go with Carr’s version, but a confrontation about GOP tactics that Mitt could spin “he said/he said” into “Australian minister says America in decline” sounds reasonable to me, too. But Carr would have owned up to that, wouldn’t he?