Romney: Closet Realist?

Romney’s No Apology offers the reader a juicy hunk of foreign policy red meat. But there are also interesting clues that Romney's own policy preferences diverge somewhat from those of his red meat audience.

Click here for all of David Frum's blogposts on Mitt Romney's "No Apology".

Pp. 22-34 of Romney’s No Apology offer the reader a juicy hunk of red meat, attacks on President Obama as a denier of American greatness, uncomfortable with American ideals of freedom, who anticipates and perhaps even welcomes American decline, and who receives plaudits from hostile authoritarians like Muammar Qaddafi and Hugo Chavez. He condemns Obama for canceling the eastern European missile defense project and for leaning too hard on Israel.

There are interesting clues in this section however that Romney's own policy preferences diverge somewhat from those of his red meat audience. While he condemns Obama for placing greater pressure on Israel to make concessions than upon the Palestinians, he does not categorically rule out all concessions by Israel - or for that matter any future pressure upon Israel. Romney endorses the Colombia free-trade agreement, not unanimously popular with conservatives. While Darfur gets a glancing mention (p. 30), Romney exhibits none of the excitement for this cause prevalent among some evangelical Christians.

The voice is the voice of talk radio, but the hands are the hands of Brent Scowcroft.