Closing argument

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama met on Monday night for the final debate before the election. The showdown in Boca Raton, hosted by Bob Schieffer of CBS, was supposed to focus exclusively on foreign policy, though both candidates frequently took the opportunity to pivot to discussions of the U.S. economy.

In contrast to previous debates, Romney was relatively muted in his criticism of the president's record, declining to criticize his handling of the Benghazi consulate attack. Romney did repeat his claim that the president had gone on an "apology tour" of the Middle East following his election, argued that Iran is now "four years closer to a nuclear weapon," and described proposed cuts to the military budget as "devastating."

Obama accused Romney of changing his positions on intervention in Libya and withdrawal from Afghanistan, and joked that the Republican candidate wants to "import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s, and the economic policies of the 1920s."

CNN viewers gave a slight edge to the more aggressive Obama in post-debate polls.

The Powell doctrine

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Obama in an interview with CBS Thursday. "I signed on for a long patrol with President Obama," said the former general, who had attracted attention by crossing party lines to endorse the president in 2008. Expressing concern with Romney's shifting positions on foreign policy, Powell said, "Sometimes I don't sense that he has thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should have."

Former New Hampshire governor Romney campaign surrogate John Sununu caused controversy on Thursday night by saying that Powell supports Obama because he is African-American. I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him," Sununu told CNN's Piers Morgan. Sununu later issued a statement saying that he doesn't doubt Powell's endorsed was "based on anything but his support of the president's policies."

Rice on Benghazi

The Obama campaign got an assist from both of George W. Bush's secretaries of state this week, with Condoleezza Rice downplaying Republican attacks on the Obama administration's handling of diplomatic security prior to the Benghazi attack. "It is not very easy in circumstances like this to know precisely what's going on as it's unfolding," she said in an interview with Fox's Greta Van Susteren. "There are protocols in place, I have no reason to believe they weren't followed, but it is not very easy in circumstances like this to know precisely what's going on as it's unfolding."

Reuters reported this week that the White House had received emails hours after the Benghazi attack saying that an Islamist militant group had claimed credit, though it now appears those emails may have been inaccurate. The Senate Intelligence committee has scheduled hearings into the attacks for several days after the election.

The third-party factor

Libertarian party candidate Gary Johnson launched his first television ad this week, touting his dovish foreign policy. The ads, which will run in several states in the mountain west, feature a menacing-looking drone and the former New Mexico governor describing himself as the "only candidate who does not want to bomb Iran." The ads follow Johnson's performance at a third-party candidates' debate on Tuesday in which he pledged to reduce military spending by 43 percent. Johnson, along with fellow third-party candidate Virgil Goode of the Constitution party, could be a factor in the battleground state of Nevada, where they have combined support of around 7 percent according to recent polls.

Who would the world vote for?

A BBC poll of 21,797 people in 21 countries shows 50 percent supporting Obama, with only 9 percent for Romney. France was the most pro-Obama country, with 72 percent support. The only country where voters preferred Romney was Pakistan, likely due to opposition to the Obama administration's drone attacks. Romney also enjoyed significant levels of support in Poland and in Obama's father's homeland, Kenya.

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Plus, get the latest updates on the campaign at The Cable and Passport.

The Benghazi fallout continues

The Obama administration continued to face criticism this week over its handling of the Sept. 11 attack that killed U.S. Amb. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya. Contradicting the initial statements made by senior administration officials, the event is now being described as a terrorist attack unrelated to the protests over an anti-Islam video that erupted elsewhere in the Middle East on the same day. At a dramatic hearing convened by the House Oversight Committee this week, the former chief security officer for the U.S. Embassy in Libya testified that his request to extend the deployment of a U.S. military team had been turned down by the State Department.

In her testimony, Charlene Lamb, a deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, insisted, "We had the correct number of assets in Benghazi on the night of 9/11," to which committee chairman Darrell Issa replied, "That doesn't ring true to the American people."

Democrats, including ranking committee member Elijah Cummings, criticized the GOP for politicizing the investigation into the attack, but Barack Obama campaign  spokesperson Stephanie Cutter took things a step further on Thursday by arguing during a CNN interview, "The entire reason that this has become the political topic it is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. It's a big part of their stump speech and it's reckless and irresponsible."

Romney was quick to take advantage of the gaffe, saying at a rally that night, "No President Obama, it's an issue because this is the first time in 33 years that a U.S. ambassador has been assassinated. Mr. President, this is an issue because we were attacked successfully by terrorists on the anniversary of 9/11."

Meeting of the running mates

Benghazi also came up on Thursday night during the one and only debate between Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden. The vice president insisted that the White House had not been made aware of the request for more security from Tripoli. "We weren't told they wanted more security. We did not know they wanted more security there," he said. Ryan also picked up on Cutter's remark, saying, "This is becoming more troubling by the day. They first blamed the YouTube video. Now they're trying to blame the Romney-Ryan ticket for making this an issue."

Moderator Martha Raddatz, a veteran foreign-affairs correspondent for ABC news, pressed the candidates on a number of foreign-policy issues, including Iran's nuclear program, the escalating violence in Syria, and the war in Afghanistan. "Under a Romney administration, we will have credibility" on threats to use military force against Iran, Ryan promised, and said, "We wouldn't refer to Bashar Assad as a reformer when he's killing his own civilians with his Russian-provided weapons." But he offered few specifics on how a Romney administration's policies on these issues would differ going forward. "What would my friend do differently? If you notice, he never answers the question," Biden quipped.

Both candidates agreed on a 2014 withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, but Ryan criticized the Obama administration for announcing its withdrawal plan in advance. Biden said that U.S. goals in Afghanistan are "almost completed. Now, all we're doing is putting the Kabul government in a position to be able to maintain their own security. It's their responsibility, not America's."

There were no questions about East Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe, or any country outside the Islamic world.

Romney speaks out

In a speech on Monday at the Virginia Military Institute, Romney referred back to the post-war policies of VMI graduate Gen. George Marshall -- not exactly a conservative hero in his day -- in arguing that Obama has weakened U.S. power through cuts to the military and has lost control of events in the Middle East. "I know the president hopes for a safer, freer, and a more prosperous Middle East allied with the United States," Romney said. "I share this hope. But hope is not a strategy. We cannot support our friends and defeat our enemies in the Middle East when our words are not backed up by deeds, when our defense spending is being arbitrarily and deeply cut, when we have no trade agenda to speak of, and the perception of our strategy is not one of partnership, but of passivity."

Attack of the RAND PAC

Outside of the presidential race, a political action committee associated with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has been buying ads targeting vulnerable Democratic senators over their support for foreign aid. In the first ad, targeting West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, the narration states, "While they tear down and burn the American flag in Egypt and shout ‘death to America, Joe Manchin votes to provide U.S. taxpayer aid to Egypt." It concludes: "Joe Manchin works with Barack Obama to send billions of our taxpayer dollars to countries where radicals storm our embassies, burn our flag and kill our diplomats." RAND PAC is also planning to run similar ads against Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham defended Manchin from his Republican colleague's attacks, saying, "I'm sorry that my colleague Sen. Rand Paul felt that he needed to get involved and has gotten involved ... I very much would like to have a Republican president, and I'd very much like to have a Republican-controlled Senate, but when it comes to foreign policy and matters of war and national security, I really do try to be bipartisan and I respect Joe a lot."

The poll picture

Polls this week continued to show Romney making up ground. While the two candidates are in a dead heat nationally, a new Tampa Bay Times/Bay News 9/Miami Herald poll shows Romney with a 7-point advantage in Florida, a state that appeared to be trending toward Obama a month ago.

The shift is even starker on foreign policy. A Fox News poll released on Wednesday gave Obama a 6-point edge over Romney on handling of foreign policy, down from a 15-point lead prior to the Benghazi attack. A new Zogby analytics poll gives Romney a 48 to 45 percent advantage on national security.

The latest from FP:

James Traub looks at Biden's role in shaping the Obama administration's foreign policy.

Jacob Heilbrun wonders when Republicans decided they had always loved Harry Truman.

Danielle Petka, Joshua Trevino, and Justin Logan debate who's winning the battle for Romney's national security soul.

Ty McCormick looks at Romney's history of declinism.

Uri Friedman runs down the best moments in vice-presidential debate history.

Plus: Follow the latest from the campaign trail on The Cable and Passport.

Autumn in New York

Both candidates were in New York earlier this week as world leaders gathered for the U.N. General Assembly. In his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Barack Obama defended the principle of free speech following this month's riots in the Muslim world over an anti-Islamic video made in the United States. "The strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech -- the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy, and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect," he said. After the speech, Barack Obama was quickly back on the campaign trail, a move that was criticized by some as the president chose not to meet with other world leaders during the week, leaving most of the face-to-face diplomacy to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Obama and Mitt Romney both addressed the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) that same day. Romney, who joked after being introduced that "If there's one thing we've learned this election season, it's that a few words from Bill Clinton can do a man a lot of good," devoted his speech to a critique of foreign aid as its currently conducted, calling for a more market-based approach.  "Nothing we can do as a nation will change lives and nations more effectively and permanently than sharing the insight that lies at the foundation of America's own economy -- free people pursuing happiness in their own ways build a strong and prosperous nation," he said.

In his CGI speech, Obama announced a new set of initiatives aimed at combating human trafficking, including new training for law enforcement and tighter restrictions on companies that receive federal contracts. "It ought to concern every community, because it tears at the social fabric. I'm talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name -- modern slavery," Obama said. 

Bombs away

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provided the U.N. General Assembly's most memorable moment with a speech during which he drew a literal "red line" on a cartoon bomb, meant to signify the point at which Iran would have nearly enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon, necessitating an Israeli military strike. Though Netanyahu has been accused in recent weeks of barely concealed campaigning for his old friend Romney, he had kind words in his speech for Obama's own warnings to Iran, saying, "I very much appreciate the president's position, as does everyone in my country."

The red line in Netanyahu's speech, which he predicted would come in "by next spring, at most by next summer," seemed to indicate that Israel is not planning to attack Iran this year -- minimizing the chances of an "October surprise" before the U.S. election. On the other hand, Netanyahu's statement still seems to be at odds with the White House's position by suggesting that it is unacceptable for Iran to even have the capacity to build a weapon.

Romney's terrorism advantage

There's little to celebrate in the poll numbers for Romney. Even Fox News' polls have the GOP candidate trailing nationwide, and a Bloomberg poll released this week found that he has even lower favorability numbers than former President George W. Bush, who has been largely shut out of the campaign due to his lingering unpopularity. On the other hand, the same poll found that Romney currently enjoys a 48 percent to 42 percent advantage over Obama on the question of which candidate Americans would trust more to fight terrorism. The poll is one of the first to come out since the attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Libya and Egypt, suggesting that the president has been damaged by the violence in the Middle East and the mixed signals from the administration over whether the incident in Benghazi was actually a terrorist attack. On the other hand, Romney was also criticized for what was seen as a rushed and overly partisan response to the events in Benghazi and Cairo, which may be one reason he's mostly keeping silent about them.

Ohio v. China

Barnstorming through the crucial state of Ohio, both candidates have sought to portray themselves as tougher on China. Campaigning at a factory in Bedford Heights, Romney again promised, "One thing I will do from day one is label China a currency manipulator. They must not steal jobs in an unfair way." Speaking at Bowling Green State University, Obama countered "He says he's gonna take the fight to them, he's going to go after these cheaters, and I've got to admit, that message is better than what he has actually done about this thing.... It sounds better than talking about all the years he spent profiting from companies that sent our jobs to China." Last week, Obama announced that the United States was filling a new case against China at the World Trade Organization while campaigning in Cincinnati.

Not everyone in the Buckeye state has responded well to the China-bashing, however. Toledo mayor Michael Bell, who has sought to attract Chinese investment in his struggling rust belt city, told the Financial Times he wishes both campaigns would cut it out. "I have to say, the campaign is really hindering us. The Chinese people we invited here are asking, ‘Why are you picking on us?'" he said.

French socialists for Obama

French Prime Minister Francois Hollande stopped short of endorsing a candidate in the U.S. election while visiting New York this week, but from his response it seemed pretty clear who his favorite was. "I'm careful to say nothing because you can imagine if a Socialist were to support one of the two candidates that might be to his detriment," he said. Hollande also defended Obama's decision not to meet with other leaders, saying, "I think everybody fully understood that Barack Obama is carrying out his campaign and he came to make a speech, one which met the expectations of the United States."

The latest from FP:

James Traub wonders if the Clinton Global Initiative speech revealed the real Romney foreign policy.

Paul Bonicelli on Romney's aid ideas.

Amy Zegart looks at why more Americans support Bush-era counterterrorism policies.

John Norris asks if America is ready for a male secretary of state.

An FP Slide Show looks at Hillary Clinton's busy week in New York.

Plus, the latest from the campaign trail at Passport and The Cable.

The embassy aftermath

The escalating chaos in the Middle East sparked by an anti-Islamic video spilled over into the presidential campaign this week. On Tuesday night, shortly after protesters had stormed the U.S. embassy in Cairo and reports had emerged that a U.S. diplomat had been killed in Libya, Mitt Romney issued a statement saying, "It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks." Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus also tweeted, "Obama sympathizes with attackers in Egypt. Sad and pathetic."

The criticism was prompted by messages put out by the U.S. embassy in Cairo before that compound had been stormed, denouncing the offending film. The Obama administration disavowed the messages from the embassy, which were reportedly published without State Department approval, and Obama campaign spokesman Ben Labolt fired back late on Tuesday night: "We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack."   

On Wednesday morning, after it had been reported that four Americans had been killed in Libya, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Romney again criticized the Obama administration's handling of the events, accusing the White House of sending "mixed signals." "I think it's a terrible course for America to apologize for our values," Romney said, referring to the original Cairo embassy statements. 

Barack Obama criticized Romney personally in an interview with CBS, saying, "Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first, aim later.  And as president, one of the things I've learned is you can't do that."

The Romney campaign has continued to step up its attacks, with advisor Richard Williamson telling the Washington Post, "There's a pretty compelling story that if you had a President Romney, you'd be in a different situation.... For the first time since Jimmy Carter, we've had an American ambassador assassinated."

Obama has also has his own trouble with messaging this week. In an interview with the Spanish-language Telemundo network on Saturday, he said of the Egyptian government, "I don't think that we would consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy. They're a new government that is trying to find its way."

The White House walked back the statement later with spokesman Tommy Vietor telling Foreign Policy, "Egypt is longstanding and close partner of the United States, and we have built on that foundation by supporting Egypt's transition to democracy and working with the new government." 

The thin red line

The Obama administration this week rejected calls by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to spell out a specific "red line" that were Iran to cross on its nuclear program would trigger an action in response. "We need some ability for the president to have decision-making room.... We have a red line, which is a nuclear weapon. We're committed to that red line," a senior official told the New York Times.

Facing criticism at home, Netanyahu denied that his frequent criticism of the Obama administration on Iran was intended to sway the election. "That's nonsense, because what's guiding me is not the election in the United States but the centrifuges in Iran," he told the newspaper Hayom.

In an interview on Friday morning, Romney told ABC's George Stephanopoulos, "My red line is Iran may not have a nuclear weapon." When asked if that meant he had the same "red line" as Obama, Romney -- who has frequently criticized the Obama administration's handling of Iran, replied "yes."

Shiny objects

According to a recent CNN poll -- conducted before this week's events -- Obama holds a 12 point advantage over Romney when voters are asked which candidate they trust to handle foreign policy. "For the first time in a very long time, a Democrat has a clear advantage on national security issues," campaign advisor Michele Flournoy told Buzzfeed, responding to the poll. 

Romney foreign policy advisor Robert O'Brien accused the Obama campaign of trying to distract voters from a sagging economy."It doesn't surprise me that they're raising foreign policy because it's another distraction from the Administration's terrible economic record... They're going from one shiny object to the next." Another advisor made a similar comment to Politico, defending the lack of discussion of national security at the Republican convention. "This is an economy election and if he gets off on foreign policy or war policy, he's playing on the president's turf," he said.

Weekly Standard editor and leading neoconservative commentator William Kristol criticized the statement, writing, "What does it say when a Romney adviser concedes "foreign policy or war policy" as "the president's turf"? Can one imagine a Reagan adviser saying such a thing in 1980?"

Romney v. Beijing

The Romney campaign launched an ad this week accusing the Obama administration of failing to prevent U.S. jobs from being lost to China by not standing up to its deflationary currency practices. In a speech on Thursday, Romney said that Obama "had the chance year after year to label China a currency manipulator, but he hasn't done so" and promised again to "label China the currency manipulator they are on the first day."

An editorial in a state-run Chinese news agency on Friday fired back, calling Romney's remarks "as false as they are foolish" and saying it is "ironic that a considerable portion of this China-battering politician's wealth was actually obtained by doing business with Chinese companies before he entered politics."

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is heading to China this weekend amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Tokyo over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Security briefings

On Sept. 10, Washington Post columnist and former George W. Bush advisor Marc Thiessen wrote a column criticizing Obama for not receiving regular Presidential Daily Briefs (PDBs) from his intelligence advisors. Citing numbers from the Government Accountability Institute, Thiessen wrote, "During his first 1,225 days in office, Obama attended his PDB just 536 times -- or 43.8 percent of the time. During 2011 and the first half of 2012, his attendance became even less frequent -- falling to just over 38 percent. By contrast, Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush almost never missed his daily intelligence meeting."

In a follow-up column, Thiessen accused Obama of skipping his briefing the day after the attack in Benghazi to attend a fundraiser in Las Vegas. Vietor responded to Thiessen: "As I've told you every time you ask, the President gets his PDB every day.... Unlike your former boss, he has it delivered to his residence in the morning and not briefed to him."

Former Vice President Dick Cheney even entered the debate, telling the Daily Caller through a spokesperson,  "If President Obama were participating in his intelligence briefings on a regular basis then perhaps he would understand why people are so offended at his efforts to take sole credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden."

The foreign vote

Two polls this week made clear that Romney should be glad he's not running for president in Europe. According to a YouGov poll of more than 12,000 people across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan, and China, only around one in 20 had a positive view of the Republican candidate. In Britain, 47 percent said a Romney victory would make them feel less favorable toward the United States, and only 3 percent said that they would feel more favorable. Respondents from the Middle East were more ambivalent about the election. Another poll by the German Marshall Fund found that 39 percent of Europeans had a negative view of Romney, compared to 23 percent positive.

Advisors on the move:

ABC reports that senior Romney foreign-policy advisor Dan Senor, who had been traveling with vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, has been pulled off the campaign trail to handle "foreign policy developments" from campaign headquarters in Boston. Senor's role in the campaign had drawn attention during Romney's trip to Israel in August.

The latest from FP:

Aaron David Miller looks at the troubled relationship between Barack and Bibi.  

David Rothkopf wonders when Democrats started sounding like Rudy Giuliani when talking about terrorism.

Will Inboden argues that foreign-policy bipartisanship is a thing of the past.

Kori Schake says Romney got national security right in his convention speech.

Stay tuned to The Cable and Passport for the latest from the campaign trail.

Obama and Romney spar on Afghanistan

At a surprise appearance at the daily White House press conference on Monday, President Barack Obama addressed a number of foreign-policy issues, notably Syria and Afghanistan. On Syria, the president seemed to rule out U.S. military intervention to topple Bashar al-Assad's regime, though he also issued a stark warning on the use of chemical or biological weapons. "We have been very clear to the Assad regime but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is, we start seeing a whole bunch of weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus," he added. That would change my equation."

He also said the U.S. military needs to beef up its vetting process for Afghan troops following a series of lethal "green on blue" attacks on U.S. troops by their Afghan counterparts. There have been 32 such incidents this year. "We have got to make sure we are on top of this," the president said, promising to discuss the problem with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. (Karzai later blamed the attacks on foreign spies.)

Mitt Romney criticized the president on his handling of the war this week, telling a gathering in New Hampshire,  "When our men and women are in harm's way, I expect the president of the United States to address the nation on a regular basis and explain what's happening and why they're there, what the mission is, what its purpose is, how we'll know when it's completed."

The Obama campaign struck back, with spokesperson Lis Smith saying that Romney has refused to detail his own plan for withdrawing from the war. "If he does have some secret plan, he owes it to our men and women in uniform to tell them," she said.

Ryan on the attack

At the same New Hampshire rally, Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan spoke at length on foreign policy for the first time. He called Iran "an existential threat to Israel'' as well as "our own national security" and discussed the Middle East peace process, arguing that "when President Obama made the 1967 borders the precondition for the beginning of negotiations, it undercut our ally." Ryan was referring to a speech last year in which Obama made the case that "the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps," comments that led to a minor kerfuffle with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Independence Day

On Thursday, the Romney campaign unveiled a new energy plan that the candidate says will allow the U.S. to achieve energy independence by 2020. The plan involves deregulating the oil and gas industry, opening up more federal lands and offshore waters to drilling, and approving the Keystone XL pipeline between the United States and Canada. In a policy paper released this week, the campaign accuses Obama of having intentionally "sought to shut down oil, gas and coal production in pursuit of his own alternative energy agenda."

Beating the Iran drums

With more signs emerging this week that Iran is continuing -- or even accelerating -- work on its nuclear program, despite covert sabotage efforts, Romney's campaign advisors have been ratcheting up the calls for military action, though as FP's Josh Rogin notes, they differ on the specifics. In an article for the Weekly Standard, former White House aide and Romney campaign advisor Elliot Abrams argues that the time has come for Obama to ask Congress for an authorization for the use of military force against Iran, as a way of reassuring Israel that he is serious about preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. "This is the way for him to show seriousness of purpose, and for Congress to support it -- and send an unmistakable message to the ayatollahs," he writes.

Meanwhile, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton argues in the Washington Times that Israel should not count on the United States to take action and should instead "make its own military decision, preferably one based on physics, not politics." Bolton also suggested that U.S. policy may not change fast enough for Israel even if Romney wins, prompting an Obama campaign spokesperson to suggest he had gone "off message."

What's in the GOP platform?

The GOP platform prepared last week will be released on Monday, ahead of the GOP convention. Other than a last-minute change from "Czechoslovakia" to Czech Republic, the foreign-policy sections of the platform have gotten less attention than what the document says about abortion and Medicare. FP's Uri Friedman runs down what we know about the platform so far. It includes a section on "Unequivocal Support for Israel,"  including recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital after the creation of a Palestinian state, support for increasing the U.S. military budget -- over the howls of the party's libertarian wing -- and the first-ever GOP plank on "Internet freedom."

The latest from FP:

Michael Levi argues that Romney's plan still won't free America from Mideast oil.

Lawrence Korb, Max Hoffman, and Robert Ward say Ryan's defense budget plan is actually closer to Obama's than Romney's.

Peter Feaver asks why Obama rarely talks about the war in Afghanistan anymore.

Josh Rogin reports on the inflammatory Facebook postings of the former Navy Seal leading attacks on Obama.

The Zoellick Identity

It's been a week of trouble appeasing the Republican base for Mitt Romney's campaign. On the domestic front, a campaign spokesperson angered conservatives by touting the former Massachusetts governor's record on healthcare. On the foreign policy front, the selection of former World Bank president Robert Zoellick as the campaign's national security transition chief has enraged the party's neo-conservatives. "For foreign policy hawks, Zoellick is an anathema," wrote Washington Post conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin.

Though Zoellick served as trade representative and deputy secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration, he's seen by many as a moderate who has been fairly accommodating to China over the years. According to the Romney campaign, his role will be confined to staffing. "Zoellick does NOT advise on policy," one source on the campaign told Rubin. (FP's Daniel Drezner also highlighted some of the factual inaccuracies in her post.)  

Nonetheless, the pick is seen by some as indication that a potential Romney White House might not have a foreign policy as hawkish as his campaign stump speaches suggest. "It gives a more reliable indicator of what Romney is thinking, which is not in line with all his rhetoric," James Mann, of the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies told the Financial Times.

Send in the general?

Matt Drudge threw another curveball into the veep selection process this week with an item suggesting that Romney might pick Gen. David Petraeus as his running mate. Drudge quoted an unnamed Democratic fundraiser who allegedly told the conservative news aggregator that President Barack Obama believes Romney will pick Petraeus. 

While there are a number of reasons why the story is extremely unlikely to be true, the Petraeus rumors highlight the fact that some of the names on the VP shortlist, such as Tim Pawlenty and Paul Ryan are a bit light on national security experience. Drudge was also the source of last month's Condoleezza Rice buzz. Perhaps he's suggesting something?

Running on autopilot

In an Aug. 6 Washington Post article, some of the Romney campaign's dozens of outside foreign policy advisers complained that their input is being ignored -- and that the candidate's "decisions are influenced by a small coterie of mostly political aides."

"They have this theory of the campaign and have been on auto­pilot with it and haven't adjusted. It's all about attacking Obama, when the bigger job is to introduce himself," said one unnamed foreign policy expert, who also complained that the heavy emphasis on Russia makes the campaign "look like Rip Van Winkle and they think it's 1989."

Should there be more foreign policy in the election?

Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson argued in a column this week that the Obama administration's decision to continue many of the Bush initiatives "has largely taken defense and foreign policy off the table in the current election." But he warns that while "criticizing the slayer of Osama bin Laden requires a more sophisticated critique than the presidential campaign -- currently at the level of ‘Romney Hood' vs. ‘Obamaloney' -- will bear," Romney can't afford to ignore the risks posed by Obama's "doctrine of deferred decisions" on issues including Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan.

If he's lost Kristof...

Formerly a staunch Obama supporter, Times columnist Nicholas Kristof appears to be losing faith the president. In June, he wrote that seeing the devastation wrought by Omar al-Bashir's government bombing in Sudan's Nuba mountains had left him "not only embarrassed by my government's passivity but outraged by it." And in a column this week, he declared Obama "AWOL" on Syria, writing, "I'm generally a fan of Obama's foreign policy, but on Syria there's a growing puzzlement around the world that he seems stuck behind the curve."  

No foreign policy in the ad war

This week saw a controversy over attack ads from both sides, with Romney's campaign demanding Obama denounce a super-PAC ad linking Romney to a woman's death from cancer and the Obama team pushing back against an ad suggesting the president would end work requirements for welfare. So far, however, there's been relatively little on the airwaves about foreign-policy issues. The Obama campaign has produced an ad touting the killing of Osama bin Laden, and the Republican Jewish Coalition has run one attacking Obama's Israel policy, but there's been relatively little compared with the slug-fest over the economy and social issues.

The latest from FP:

In an interview with FP, former Secretary of State James Baker pushes back against the neoconservatives who have criticized the Zoellick pick and defends his work on the Mideast peace process.

Joshua E. Keating noted some odd remarks from Romney on Israel's Kibbutzim and Japan. Josh Rogin got reaction from Japan scholars.

The Cable also looked at some of the GOP foreign-policy hands jockeying for positions in a potential Romney administration.

Michael A. Cohen looks at the candidates' "budget-waving contest" about defense spending and American power.

George Lakoff says liberal pundits misunderstand "low information voters."

Sean Kay refutes the analysts that claim that Obama's forgotten about Europe.

Stephen Walt says the similarities between Obama and Romney on foreign policy outweigh the differences.

Former governor Haley Barbour invites overtaxed French millionaires to come and laissez les bon temps rouler in Mississippi.

Mitt Romney may have hoped for a couple of days of softball coverage as he began his three-country international tour with a stop at the London Olympics, but he's run straight into the buzzsaw of the British media with a series of gaffes and unforced errors.

First, in a Wednesday night interview, the former Salt Lake City Olympics chief told NBC's Brian Williams, "There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging." He also suggested that it wasn't yet clear whether Britons would "come together and celebrate the Olympic moment."

The comments earned rebukes from Prime Minister David Cameron, who seemed to mock Utah by suggesting that it's "easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere" and London mayor Boris Johnson, who openly mocked Romney in a public speech.

But Romney wasn't done with the awkward moments. He seemed to forget Labour leader Ed Miliband's name, calling him "Mr. Leader" in a private meeting; mentioned an appointment at MI6 -- the intelligence agency whose activities are rarely publicly discussed by politicians; referred to looking out the "backside" of 10 Downing Street, a word with somewhat different connotations in British English. Add to that an unnamed advisor's racially incendiary comment that Romney would restore "Anglo-Saxon" relations between the two countries and you have the makings of what the British twittersphere is referring to as the #romneyshambles -- a play on the term "omnishambles" from the popular political satire "The Thick of It." Even right-wing British newspapers were referring to the candidate as "worse than Sarah Palin."

The Romney campaign will be hoping for better luck as world tour continues with stops in Germany, Poland, and Israel.

Speech-off:

Before Romney's trip began, he and President Barack Obama faced off with dueling national security speeches to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) conference in Reno, Nevada. Without mentioning him by name, Obama seemed to suggest that Romney's plans for Afghanistan were vague and undefined, saying, "When you're commander in chief, you owe the troops a plan. You owe the country a plan." Romney's speech accused the president of allowing U.S. military power and political leadership to wane, saying, "[W]hen it comes to national security and foreign policy, as with our economy, the last few years have been a time of declining influence and missed opportunity."

Leak attack:

Romney also used the VFW speech to accuse the Obama administration of strategically leaking classified defense information to the press at a time when "Lives of American servicemen and women are at stake." The day after the speech, a top Romney advisor -- former George W. Bush envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson -- accused National Security Advisor Tom Donilon of being the source of recent leaks to the New York Times.

This week in Jerusalem:

Romney is likely hoping that he can make up for the not-so-graceful performance in London with a warmer welcome in Israel, where he will arrive on Saturday. In an interview with Haaretz in advance of his visit, Romney reaffirmed his willingness to use force to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and suggested he would refrain from publicly criticizing the Jewish state.  "There will be, of course, times of disagreement and disparity in our respective interests... but those are best in keeping to ourselves, in private," he said.

In a bit of likely-not-so-coincidental timing, Obama signed a new bill into law on Friday, increasing U.S. military cooperation with Israel -- including $70 million for the country's "Iron Dome" missile defense system. Campaign advisors also suggested Obama will visit the country in his second term. The lack of a visit so far in his presidency has been a popular Republican talking point. 

The Syrian equation:

The Obama administration appears to be moving toward greater assistance to the rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, including providing supplies and communications equipment and sharing intelligence. "I have to say that we are also increasing our efforts to assist the opposition," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. Despite this increased participation, a lack of CIA assets on the ground may be hampering U.S. efforts to learn more about the opposition forces.

The latest from FP:

Alistair Burnett on how the U.S. presidential race looks from London.

Oren Kessler on Romney's opportunity to court the Jewish vote in Israel.

Aaron David Miller warns that a showdown with Benjamin Netanyahu is likely if Obama is elected.

Joshua Keating looks at the very recent "tradition" of U.S. presidential candidates heading abroad.

Michael Cohen takes a look at whether Obama has kept his campaign promises.

Daniel Altman argues that Republicans intentionally sabotaged the economic recovery.

Mark Leonard looks at how Europe fell out of love with Obama.

"Spiking the football"

As expected, President Barack Obama's campaign is fully capitalizing on the killing of Osama bin Laden in his reelection pitch. An ad released on the one-year anniversary of the Abbottabad raid features former President Bill Clinton praising Obama for having the courage to order the raid and suggesting that Mitt Romney would not have made the same call. Romney pushed back on Monday, saying "Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order."  The ad's release preceded a surprise trip to Afghanistan, during which the president signed a new strategic partnership agreement with the Afghan government and addressed the U.S. public from Bagram air base.

Others criticized the Obama campaign for politicizing the issue and "spiking the football" as he had promised not to do in the waking of the killing.. "Shame on Barack Obama for diminishing the memory of September 11th and the killing of Osama bin Laden by turning it into a cheap political attack ad," said Sen. John McCain. The group Veterans for a Strong America released a response ad, "throwing the penalty flag up on President Obama for excessive celebration." The ad made the case that "Heroes Don't Politicize Their Acts of Valor."

Other commentators have pointed out that Obama is hardly the first president to politicize military success.

The battle over Chen

This week saw a high-stakes standoff in Beijing over the fate of human rights activist Chen Guangcheng on the eve of a major U.S.-China summit. In addition to his iconic status in China, Chen enjoys widespread support in the United States, including among prominent anti-abortion members of Congress. After Chen suggested to the media that he had been pressured to leave the U.S. Embassy and had been abandoned by U.S. officials, Romney was quick to respond. "If these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom. And it's a day of shame for the Obama administration," Romney said during an event with Virginia where he was endorsed by former candidate Michele Bachmann.

Romney was criticized for his response by Weekly Standard editor and prominent neoconservative commentator Bill Kristol, who told Fox News, "To inject yourself into the middle of this way with a fast-moving target I think is foolish."

The United States and China reached a tentative deal on Friday that will allow Chen to leave China.

Romney spokesman steps down

The Romney campaign's newly appointed foreign policy and national security spokesman Richard Grenell stepped down this week. It wasn't Grenell's foreign-policy views that led to his downfall as much as the fact that he's openly gay and supports gay marriage. The appointment of Grenell, who had served as spokesman for former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton,  came under attack from religious conservatives from the beginning. He also faced criticism from liberals over tweets attacking major democratic political figures.

"While I welcomed the challenge to confront President Obama's foreign policy failures and weak leadership on the world stage, my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign," Grenell said in a statement.

Newt's exit

Newt Gingrich officially suspended his campaign this week, but if the Romney camp was hoping for a strong endorsement, they came away disappointed. "As for the presidency, I'm asked sometimes, is Mitt Romney conservative?" Gingrich said in his concession speech at the Arlington Hilton. "And my answer is simple. Compared to Barack Obama? You know, this is not a choice between Mitt Romney and Ronald Reagan. This is a choice between Mitt Romney and the most radical leftist president in American history."

Though he acknowledged that his staunch support for establishing a colony on the moon may not have done wonders for his campaign, he promised to "cheerfully" recommit himself to the cause. Referring to his grandchildren, he said "I'm not totally certain I will get to the moon colony," he said. "I am certain Maggie and Robert will have that opportunity to go and take it. I think it's almost inevitable on just the sheer scale of technological change."

The latest from FP:

Michael Scheuer makes the case for why Ron Paul would be a great foreign-policy president.

Colum Lynch looks at the guilty schadenfreude at the U.N. over of Grenell's fate.

With Obama attacking Romney over his overseas wealth, Uri Friedman asks whether poor people can open Swiss bank accounts.

Stephen Walt wonders if the Kabul trip will be Obama's "mission accomplished" moment.

Scott Clement says voters are fine with presidential chest-thumping, as long as it's their candidate who's doing the thumping.

Michael Cohen argues that the Bin Laden killing is "the core of [Obama's] reelection prospects."

Santorum drops out

Rick Santorum, the last credible rival for the GOP nomination, dropped out of the race on Wednesday leaving a clear path for front-runner and presumptive nominee Mitt Romney. "This game is a long, long, long way from over," Santorum told supporters. "We are going to continue to go out there and fight to make sure that we defeat President Barack Obama." Notably, Santorum did not mention Romney in his concession.

With 651 delegates, Romney may have the contest all wrapped up, but nobody appears to have told Newt Gingrich, who still vows to stay in the race until Romney collects the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the nomination. "I want to do what I do best, which is talk about big solutions and big approaches," Gingrich told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "I want to keep campaigning." But $4.5 million in debt, Gingrich's campaign suffered a further indignity this week when its $500 check for the filing fee to appear on the Utah primary ballot bounced.

North Korea

On Thursday night (EDT), North Korea attempted -- but failed -- in an attempt to launch a satellite into orbit. Though the botched launch of the long-range missile, which broke apart before entering orbit, was a humiliation for North Korea's young leader Kim Jong Un, it also essentially scuttled a year of diplomatic outreach by the Obama administration, which culminated in a now-nullified deal on Feb. 29 under which Pyongyang agreed to suspend its uranium enrichment program in exchange for food aid.

The Romney campaign was quick to respond with a statement saying that the launch demonstrated the "incompetence" and weakness of the Obama administration's foreign policy. "Instead of approaching Pyongyang from a position of strength, President Obama sought to appease the regime with a food-aid deal that proved to be as naive as it was short-lived," he said.

A cold shoulder to Brazil

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was in Washington on Monday for a White House meeting with Barack Obama. But in contrast to her fellow BRICS leaders Hu Jintao and Manmohan Singh, arguably the second most powerful leader in the Western hemisphere got only a 2-hour meeting with the president on a day dominated by the White House lawn Easter Egg roll. The Brazilian government has repeatedly criticized Washington for monetary and interest rate policies that they say unfairly advantage U.S. exports and for visa requirements for Brazilian travelers that take up to 35 days to process.

The two leaders will meet again this weekend at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia.

Afghan war

Public support for the war in Afghanistan has fallen to an all-time low according to a new Washington Post-ABC poll, with only 30 percent of respondents saying it has been worth the effort and expenditure. For the first time, a majority of Republicans do not approve of the war. As to the president's leadership, 48 percent of those polled approve of Obama's handling of the war, while 43 percent disapprove. In a sign of an accelerated effort to transfer responsibility to Afghan forces, the United States agreed this week to hand over control of the controversial nighttime raids that were once seen as critical to winning the war.    

Numbers game

Romney may have a steep hill to climb if he aims to win the foreign-policy fight in the campaign. New polling shows that voters trust Obama over the GOP frontrunner by a 15 percent margin. Writing for Foreign Policy, Washington Post polling analyst Scott Clement notes that "Romney's weakness on foreign policy doesn't appear to result from Obama's strengths. Americans give Obama middling ratings on international affairs overall: 47 percent approve while 44 percent disapprove."

After the bruising primary, Romney appears to have sketched out a decidedly hawkish platform on foreign policy. Moving into the general election, with Americans increasingly skeptical of military action abroad, it remains to be seen whether the candidate will moderate his views to appear to undecided voters.

What to watch for:

Latin American summits are typically a good showcase for some outlandish behavior. Obama's opponents will likely be on the lookout to see how the president interacts with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. He was criticized for embracing the leftist leader in 2009.

The latest from Foreign Policy:

Aaron David Miller says the notion that presidents have more "flexibility" to act in their second terms is a myth.

Will Imboden gives six reasons we should hope Obama's not more flexible.

Daniel Drezner questions Romney's seriousness on foreign policy.

Michael A. Cohen looks at who's leading on the big international issues that will define the contest between Romney and Obama.

Russia Rumble

This week, the campaign was unexpectedly dominated by a debate over Russia policy. The back-and-forth was sparked by an embarrassing "hot mic" incident on Monday at a summit on Seoul, when President Barack Obama told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more "space" to tackle controversial issues such as missile defense after the election. "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility," he told the outgoing Russian leader, who promised to "transmit this information to Vladimir."

Mitt Romney was quick to seize on the incident to bolster his argument that Obama has ignored the security threat posed by Russia. He went a bit over the top with the rhetoric, however, telling CNN's Wolf Blitzer that "this is without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe, they fight every cause for the world's worst actors, the idea that he has more flexibility in mind for Russia is very, very troubling indeed."

Democrats -- and a few Republicans -- disputed the notion that Russia is the nation's primary foe. "You don't have to be a foreign policy expert to know that the Cold War ended 20 years ago and that the greatest threat that the president has been fighting on behalf of the American people is the threat posed by al Qaeda," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

Romney doubled down on his charge against the president with an op-ed in Foreign Policy, writing that "In his dealings with the Kremlin, as in his dealings with the rest of the world, President Obama has demonstrated breathtaking weakness -- and given the word ‘flexibility' a new and ominous meaning."

A group of Romney's senior advisors also published an open-letter on the website of the National Review detailing a list of the president's main foreign policy failings. The Obama campaign's senior foreign policy advisors pushed pushed back with a letter to Romney published in FP demanding that Romney "clarify exactly how and why you would depart from many of President Obama's policies."

Romney even got into it with Medvedev himself this week. The Russian president said the candidate's rhetoric "smacks of Hollywood" and advised him to "check his watch" to see that it's no longer the 1970s. The Romney campaign struck back with a press release calling him "President Medvedev (D-Russia)" and accusing him of "campaigning for Obama."

Santorum's Jelly Belly foreign policy

Rick Santorum chose an unusual venue on Thursday for a national security-focused address meant to reinvigorate his struggling campaign: The Jelly Belly headquarters in Fairfield, California. Attempting to associate himself with the foreign-policy acumen of GOP icon and famous jellybean fiend Ronald Reagan, Santorum made the case that "Of all of the failings of this administration, of all of the failings, perhaps the greatest is on national security."

Santorum also seized on the hot mic gaffe: "Ronald Reagan didn't whisper to Gorbachev, ‘Give me some flexibility.... He walked out of Iceland and said, ‘You either do this, or we have no deal.'"

H.W. goes all in

While Santorum while trying to channel the Gipper, his vice-president and successor George H.W. Bush officially endorsed Romney -- no surprise as he had publicly praised the candidate earlier in the race and his son Jeb endorsed last week. The 87-year-old (mis)quoted Kenny Rogers when asked about Romney's rivals, saying, ‘It's time when to hold ‘em and time when to fold ‘em."

The meeting raised questions as to when George W. Bush will make an endorsement in the race. "I haven't met with President George W. Bush. We speak from time to time," Romney said.

Newt loses his sugar daddy

The struggling campaign of Newt Gingrich, who has won only South Carolina and his home state of Georgia so far, has been kept afloat by the largesse of Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. The staunch Israel hawk has donated over $20 million to Gingrich's Super PAC. It appears, however, that Adelson's generosity has its limits. Speaking at the Jewish Federations of North America's annual TribeFest conference in Las Vegas this week, the billionaire said this week that Gingrich may be "at the end of the line" since mathematically, "he can't get anywhere near the number" of delegates needed. Adelson has reportedly been reaching out to supporters of the Romney campaign.

Gingrich, the onetime frontrunner, laid off one-third of his staff this week.

Is Paul coming around to Romney?

Ron Paul, currently running in fourth place with a total of 50 delegates in the bag, has previously suggested that foreign policy might be an obstacle to him throwing his support behind Romney. This week, however, Paul paid the frontrunner the mildest of compliments in an interview with Bloomberg television: "I think Mitt Romney is more likely to be more willing to listen to his advisers.... If he decides he wants to go and bomb Iran, maybe he might listen to somebody else. I'm afraid the other [candidates] would just go do it anyway."

What to watch for:

Maryland, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia hold primaries on Tuesday. Romney is favored to win all three contests. (Santorum isn't on the ballot in D.C.)

After that, it's a long wait until a set of five northeastern primaries on April 23. Santorum's Gotterdämmerung may very well come in his home state of Pennsylvania, where the latest polls show him in a statistical dead heat with Romney.

The latest from FP:

Romney's Russia op-ed.

The Obama campaign's response.

Scott Clement says that Americans really don't think of Russia as an enemy anymore.

Daniel Drezner on the dirty, little secret of second-term presidents.

Michael Cohen argues the president's real constitutional overreach wasn't healthcare, it was Libya.

In honor of Santorum's Jelly Belly address, Uri Friedman recaps the year in political food fights.

Southern man don't need him around, anyhow

Frontrunner Mitt Romney's difficulties in the South continued this week with Rick Santorum picking up wins in Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday. Despite strong evidence that the contest is becoming a two-man race, Newt Gingrich shows no signs that he's considering dropping out. Romney picked up victories in Hawaii and American Samoa and continues to hold a strong lead in delegates. 

The Afghanistan clock

A poll taken in the days after a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan went on a killing spree, murdering 16 civilians, shows that more than half of Americans support speeding up the U.S. withdrawal from the country. President Barack Obama vowed this week to stick to the current withdrawal timetable, which has U.S. troops handing over security duties to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

Gingrich surprised many this week by suggesting that "it's very likely that we have lost, tragically lost, the lives and suffered injuries to a considerable number of young Americans on a mission that we're going to discover is not doable." He was immediately criticized for the comment by GOP Senator Lindsay Graham.

Romney cautioned against making a major change in strategy because of the incident. "You don't make an abrupt shift in policy because of the actions of one crazed, deranged person," he said.

Santorum: Foreign policy may be the dominant issue of the campaign?

The conventional wisdom so far in the campaign has been that foreign policy would take a back seat to concerns over the economy. But Santorum suggested this week that with the economic outlook improving somewhat, priorities may be shifting. "That may be the issue of the day come this fall -- a nuclear Iran. Or on the precipice of it [with] Israel potentially having to go to war to stop that development." He continued: "I may not have been a Wall Street private equities fund manager, but I served eight years on the [Senate] Armed Services Committee."

Paul power

With no state victories and only 48 delegates to his name, Ron Paul is beginning to feel like an afterthought in this race. But with the increasingly possibility that this race goes to the convention in Tampa without a clear victor, Paul's support could become a sought-after commodity. There has been rumor and speculation that Paul is tacitly supporting Romney by focusing most of his attacks on Santorum and Gingrich, but the Texas congressman suggested this week that he may not be able to support Romney because of their differences on foreign policy. "I'd talk to him and see what kind of a foreign policy he is going to have," Paul said. "Mitt's a friend and we talk a lot. We just disagree on the issues." Paul also argued that the "Republicans are going to be in trouble unless they come our way and decide they want a president who's more for peace than for war."

Habla político?

With Puerto Rico's primary coming on Sunday, the issue of English as a national language has bubbled up in the campaign. On Wednesday, Santorum suggested that he might be in favor of Puerto Rican statehood, as long as the territory was willing to adopt English as its official language. "Like any other state, there needs to be compliance with this and any other federal law.... And that is that English needs to be the principal language. There are other states with more than one language, like Hawaii, but to be a state of the United States, English must be the principal language."

At least one of Santorum's Puerto Rican delegates withdrew his support over the comment, which Santorum continued to defend on Friday. The Romney campaign issued a mild rebuke, saying, "Governor Romney believes that English is the language of opportunity and supports efforts to expand English proficiency in Puerto Rico and across America. However, he would not, as a prerequisite for statehood, require that the people of Puerto Rico cease using Spanish."

As a point of fact, English is taught in schools in Puerto Rico. The U.S. federal government does not require states to make English the official language, though a number of states have passed laws to that effect.

Algae wars

In recent weeks, Gingrich has reframed his campaign around the issue of gas prices, pledging $2.50-per-gallon gas if he is elected, and repeatedly mocking President Obama for suggesting algae as a potential replacement for fossil fuels. The president fired back this week, accusing GOP candidates of dismissing scientific innovations: "If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the Flat Earth Society -- they would not have believed that the world was round."

Gingrich responded, saying "The president maligned me, suggesting I don't like biofuels. That's baloney. I am in favor of science and technology." However, Gingrich said, "no serious study" had suggested that algae could serve as a replacement for oil in the short run.

White House spokesman Jay Carney also suggested this week that any candidate promising $2.50 gas was "lying." He later backed off the comment -- sort of -- saying "I shouldn't have gone to motivations, I should have said that anybody who said that doesn't know what he's talking about."

What to watch for:

Following Missouri's official caucus on Saturday (voters chose Santorum in an unofficial primary back in February) and Puerto Rico's primary on Sunday, Illinois will hold its closely watched primary on Tuesday. Polls show Romney with a slight lead.

The latest from FP:

Michael A. Cohen says that the war in Afghanistan could become a major political liability for the president in November.

David Rothkopf looks at Obama's "cool diplomacy."

Alex Massie argues that the GOP have a lot to learn from David Cameron's Tories.

Oliver Kamm says Cameron is betting on Obama's reelection.

Aaron David Miller has a suggestion for why the GOP has such a hard time attacking Obama on foreign policy.

Scott Clement says the public generally support Obama's wait-and-see approach on Iran.

Stephen Walt argues that if Santorum is serious about becoming president, he must convince Gingrich to drop out.

Michael Peck plays a new game that simulates the twits-and-turns of the 2008 campaign trail.

Joshua Keating looks at Santorum's faith-based approach to Dutch medical statistics.

Super Tuesday shakeout

Mitt Romney solidified his front-runner status in the all-important Super Tuesday contests this week, narrowly eking out a crucial win in Ohio, as well as Alaska, Idaho, Vermont, his home state of Massachusetts, and Virginia -- where Ron Paul was the only other candidate on the ballot. Rick Santorum took North Dakota, Idaho, and Tennessee, while Newt Gingrich won his home state of Georgia. Despite a near-tie in Ohio, Romney will take nearly all of the state's delegates because of the Santorum campaign's failure to meet the state's eligibility requirements months ago. Despite the lack of a clear referendum backing Romney, there now appears to be little chance of any other candidate closing the delegate gap.

AIPAC attack

The GOP candidates took the opportunity at this week's meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to again attack President Barack Obama's stance on Israel. "The current administration has distanced itself from Israel and visibly warmed to the Palestinian cause. It has emboldened the Palestinians.... As president, I will treat our allies and friends like friends and allies," Romney said.

"As I've sat and watched this play out on the world stage, I have seen a president who has been reticent," said Santorum. "He says he has Israel's back; from everything I've seen from the conduct of this administration, he has turned his back on the people of Israel,"

Santorum was referring to Obama's earlier speech to AIPAC  on Sunday, during which he said, "There should not be a shred of doubt by now: when the chips are down, I have Israel's back." Speaking shortly before a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama said, "When it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say."

Gingrich, for his part, seemed a bit unprepared for his speech. Video released by ABC News showed him nodding off slightly before he was due to deliver his remarks by satellite. He also seemed to be under the impression he was participating in a panel discussion rather than giving a speech.

Iran Drumbeats

As usual, Iran was the major foreign-policy topic of discussion on the campaign trail this week. In a Washington Post op-ed published on Monday, Romney compared Obama's handling of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program to Jimmy Carter's failure to secure the release of U.S. hostages in 1979. Romney pledged to "take every measure necessary to check the evil regime of the ayatollahs. Until Iran ceases its nuclear-bomb program, I will press for ever-tightening sanctions, acting with other countries if we can but alone if we must. I will speak out on behalf of the cause of democracy in Iran and support Iranian dissidents who are fighting for their freedom."

At a White House press conference the following day, Obama rebuked his critics in the GOP field and in Congress for their hawkish rhetoric on Iran. "This is not a game," he added. "And there's nothing casual about it....  If some of these folks think that it's time to launch a war, they should say so, and they should explain to the American people exactly why they would do that and what the consequences would be."

A Sarkozy endorsement?

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, currently locked in his own tough election battle, seemed to endorse Obama's reelection effort during a speech on Mideast policy this week. "President Obama, who is a very great president, won't take the initiative [on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations] before he's re-elected -- and I hope he will be -- but there's a place for France and a place for Europe," Sarkozy said.

World leaders generally refrain from publicly taking sides in other countries' elections, though the practice has recently become more common in Europe.  

What to watch for:

The week ahead could be a tough one for the Romney campaign with contests in Kansas on Saturday, and Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday, all of which are friendly territory for Santorum. While victories for the former Pennsylvania senator wouldn't change the delegate math much, they would add to concerns about Romney's ability to rally southern and socially conservative voters.

Leaving nothing to chance, Romney has even dispatched his son Matt to visit the Pacific territories of Guam and Northern Mariana, which also hold primaries this weekend.

Obama hosts British Prime Minister David Cameron at the White House for talks on Afghanistan and some March Madness.

The latest from FP:

Ruy Teixeira says the real winner of Super Tuesday was Obama.

Uri Friedman finds six international newspaper columnists who actually like Romney.

Michael Cohen argues that the GOP candidates are mischaracterizing Ronald Reagan's foreign policy.

Tom Ricks thinks Romney has effectively endorsed Obama's Iran policy.

Josh Rogin reports on Sen. John Kerry's response to Romney's Iran op-ed.

Joshua Keating looks at presidential "first trip" etiquette.

Debating Syria

A Wednesday-night debate in Arizona was the first time the candidates discussed the deteriorating situation in Syria at any length, though mostly in the context of what it would mean for Iran's nuclear program and global energy prices. Mitt Romney did suggest that the United States work "with Saudi Arabia and with Turkey to ... provide the kind of weaponry that's needed to help the rebels inside Syria." Newt Gingrich, as he often does, suggesting a policy of having "our allies covertly helping destroy the Assad regime."

The debate was widely covered as a test for the surging Rick Santorum, who was attacked repeatedly, often by Ron Paul, on his credentials as a fiscal conservative. On national security issues, Santorum touted his long record of urging aggressive polices against Iran and criticized the Obama administration for standing with "radicals" against "a friend of ours in Egypt" -- ousted president Hosni Mubarak. He also seemed to pivot away from his previous concerns about women serving in more combat roles in the military, though he did warn against "social engineering."

Gingrich on the attack

Seemingly eclipsed by Santorum's rise, onetime poll leader Gingrich has repeatedly made news this week for strident attacks against Barack Obama's foreign policy. Gingrich referred to Obama as the "most dangerous president in modern American history" during a speech in Oklahoma, accusing him of putting political correctness above U.S. national security in his administration's response to Islamist terrorism.  Appearing on CBS's "This Morning," Gingrich called Obama's energy policies "outrageously anti-American'' and ridiculed the idea that the electric car "is going to liberate us from Saudi Arabia."

On Thursday, Gingrich again lashed out at Obama following the president's apology to Afghan authorities for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base. "He is consistently apologizing to people who do not deserve the apology of the United States," Gingrich said. The candidate went on to demand that the Afghan government apologize to the United States for the killing of two American soldiers in the riots that followed the burning.

Romney against the world

The AP's Steven Hurst examined Romney's foreign-policy rhetoric in a news analysis this week, writing that "It often appears that Romney is targeting the rest of the world as fiercely as he does his rivals for the party nomination and President Barack Obama." Referring to Romney's attacks on European socialism, Chinese currency manipulation and Russian duplicitousness, the article asks whether the tone of Romney's rhetoric will hurt him in the general election, or with the governments in question should he become president.

"Other governments are not naive, and they understand the rough-and-tumble of U.S. politics just as we understand the rough-and-tumble of politics in other countries," responded Amb. Richard Williamson, a top Romney foreign-policy advisor.

Obama: I'll get to immigration next term

The president came into office promising comprehensive immigration reform, but the issue has largely fallen by the wayside during congressional battles over health care and the economy. In an interview with Univision Radio this week, the president promised to make the issue a priority if he is reelected for a second term. "I've got another five years coming up. We're going to get this done," he said.

At Wednesday night's debate, both Santorum and Romney held up Arizona's tough immigration policies and the harsh tactics employed by controversial Maricopa Country Sherriff Joe Arpaio as models for how to address the issue. 

Santorum's Dutch disease

Santorum has left many scratching their heads with comments made several weeks ago in which he suggested that 1 in 20 deaths in the Netherlands result from forced euthanasia. Santorum continued to claim that elderly people in the Netherlands often wear bracelets that say "do not euthanize me" and "don't go to the hospital, they go to another country, because they're afraid because of budget purposes that they will not come out of that hospital if they go into it with sickness." The Dutch government declined to comment on the claim this week, but provided the New York Times with documents showing that there is no provision in Dutch law for forced euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia has been legal there since 2002 and accounts for around 2 percent of deaths in the country.

The Netherlands wasn't the only European country Santorum has taken a shot at this week. At a national security focused speech in Ohio, he took aim at the president's relationship with France: "He actually went to France a year or so ago and was with Nicolas Sarkozy and said that, 'Here I am with the French prime minister, our best ally in the world.' Now think about this. Name one time in the last 20 years that the French stood by us with anything."

The remark was given a "pants-on-fire" rating by Politifact.

What to watch for

Arizona and Michigan voters head to the polls on Tuesday. RealClearPolitics's latest poll average shows Romney with a 9-point advantage in Arizona. He also seems to have retaken the lead in his birthplace state of Michigan, but still leads Santorum by less than two points.

Tuesday's victor will have little time to rest on his laurels. The 10 Super Tuesday contests are right around the corner on March 6. The biggest delegate prizes of the day will be Ohio, where Santorum currently leads, and Georgia, where native son Gingrich has the advantage.

The latest from FP

Scott Clement looks at why polls are so all over the map when it comes to attacking Iran.

Joshua Keating rounds up the foreign-policy highlights from Wednesday's debate.

Uri Friedman examines Gingrich's not-so-covert love of covert ops.

Michael Cohen argues that campaign-trail rhetoric touting American exceptionalism is obscuring the real causes of decline.

Santorum's big night
It ain't over yet. Rick Santorum pulled off an unlikely hat-trick on Tuesday night, winning caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado as well as a non-binding primary in Missouri -- a troubling development for frontrunner Mitt Romney, who received lower vote totals in all three states than he did in 2008.
"I don't stand here and claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney.... I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama," Santorum said in a speech to supporters in St. Louis. Once seen as the presumptive challenger to Romney, Newt Gingrich wasn't even on the ballot in Missouri and had disappointing third and fourth-place finishes in the other contests. His campaign is now focused on the Super Tuesday contests on March 6, which will award more than 400 delegates.
Santorum's surprising success is likely to focus more media scrutiny on his foreign-policy views, which have so far received less attention than his socially conservative domestic policies. In particular, Santorum has a long record of hawkish views on Iran and Islam. 

Women in combat
The announcement this week that the Pentagon is easing some restrictions on women in combat is already resonating in the campaign. Santorum expressed concerns about the policy change this week, telling NBC's Ann Curry, "When you have men and women together in combat, I think men have emotions when you see a woman in harm's way.... I think it's something that's natural that's very much in our culture to be protective. That was my concern, and I think that's a concern with all the military.''
Polls, however, show strong support -- even among those describing themselves as "very conservative" -- for allowing women to serve in combat roles.

Release the Bachmann
The Conservative Political Action Conference is meeting this week in Washington, D.C. and while there is reportedly little enthusiasm for Romney's candidacy at the event, former candidate Michele Bachmann fired up the crowd with a withering assault on Barack Obama's foreign-policy record. "After a decade of sacrifice to defeat global jihad, Obama has chosen to hand Iraq to Iran," Bachmann said. "Before Obama was elected, no one had ever heard a United States president say to the world that we are anything but an exceptional nation," she continued. "And before President Obama was elected, we never had a president go around apologizing to the world."
Romney will address CPAC on Friday in what's being seen as a critical opportunity to defend his conservative credentials.

Romney readies
While he may be a long way from finishing off his Republican rivals, Romney is apparently already prepping for a foreign-policy debate with Obama. RealClearPolitics reports that for the past three weeks, the Romney campaign has been holding a weekly conference call with the more than 40 experts who are advising the campaign on foreign policy. Romney's campaign argues that despite Obama's generally high approval ratings on foreign affairs, he will be vulnerable on defense spending, tension with Israel, the "reset" policy with Russia, and his inability to halt the development of an Iranian nuclear weapon.

Liberals learn to stop worrying and love drones and Gitmo
Obama may have fired up the base in 2008 by attacking the Bush administration's harsh counterterrorism policies, but with a Democrat in office, these same voters seem to be becoming more comfortable with the war on terror. A new CBS-Washington Post poll finds that 70 percent of voters -- including 53 percent of self-identified liberal democrats -- approve of keeping the detention center at Guantanamo Bay open. Obama signed an executive order closing the prison in the first week of his presidency, but that promise has now been largely abandoned in the face of strong congressional opposition. The poll also found that 77 percent of liberal democrats support drone strikes against suspected terrorists and a majority also support the use of drones U.S. citizens who are suspected of terrorism overseas.

What to watch for
Maine will announce the results of its week-long caucuses on Saturday. The independent-leaning northeast state may be Ron Paul's best chance for a win, as neither Gingrich nor Santorum have campaigned in the low-turnout contest.

On the Election Channel
Uri Friedman reads Santorum's 40+ op-eds on Iran so you don't have to.
Charles Kupchan says Romney should get real and admit it's not going to be an American century. Shadow Government's Will Inboden counters.
David Hoffman lists 5 pressing national security threats that haven't been mentioned in the campaign.
Scott Clement, from the Washington Post's Behind the Numbers team, finds little voter support for a U.S. intervention in Syria.
Joshua E. Keating profiles America's weirdest Super PAC.