CNN 2012-08-01

 Well, Mitt 1 Romney is in Poland tonight, the final stop on a three-country trip that's made headlines, some favorable, others not so much.

 
 
 
His remarks on the Olympics angered some British. He walked them back. His remarks in Israel on why the Palestinians haven't done as well economically as Israelis angered Palestinians. Culture, he said, makes all the difference.
 
 
 
He praised the Israeli health care system, his critics point out, in comparison with Americans. But he didn't mention that the Israeli system is government run. Something he's obviously opposed to here at home. He clarified earlier remarks also about Russia to Wolf Blitzer.
 
 
 
The last time you and I spoke 2 in an interview, you told me that Russia was America's number one geostrategic foe 3. Do you still believe that?
 
 
 
Well, there's no question, but that, in terms of geopolitics, I'm talking about votes at the United Nations and the actions of a -- of a geopolitical nature.
 
 
 
Russia is the number one adversary 4 in that regard. That doesn't make them an enemy. It doesn't make them a combatant. They don't represent the number one national security threat. The number one national security threat, of course, to our nation is a nuclear Iran.
 
 
 
Mr. Romney has drawn 5 praise from conservatives for his line on Iran as well as his vocal 6 support for Israel.
 
 
 
As for the trip so far, two questions. First, how will it affect his chance in November if at all? And second, what does it say, if anything, about how he'd run foreign policy if elected?
 
 
 
Let's talk about the "Raw Politics" with the Republican strategist, Ari Fleischer, an unpaid 7 occasional adviser 8 to the Romney campaign, and board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition 9.
 
 
 
Also with us, Cornell Belcher, a pollster for the Obama 2012 campaign.
 
 
 
Ari, do you think that Governor Romney did what he needed to do overseas? Do you think it's going to help him in long term? 
 
 
 
In Israel, he certainly did. You know, I do have to say, even though I think it's been ridiculous, seems exaggerated, and it's been going on now for five days, he did a mistake in England and it cost him the opportunity to bask 10 in the glow of the Olympics. But if he was running for prime minister, it might hurt him. He was, he's running for president.
 
 
 
In Israel, I think he knocked it out the ballpark. I think if the issue there is the impact this trip will have on the Jewish community in the United States, calling Jerusalem the capital is what those American Jews who vote on the basis of foreign policy and defense 11 will remember from this trip, and also today, of course Lech Walesa giving him a virtual endorsement 12.
 
 
 
You know, that's, I think, the power of the trip for him.
 
 
 
Cornell, one of your campaign surrogates, former Ambassador Tim Roemer, questioned Romney's ability to be commander in chief, saying quote "If he can't engage our allies on a simple topic like the international Olympics, how is he going to be tough enough to stand up to our gravest enemies like Iran?"
 
 
 
Romney, though, was pretty tough on Iran in his speech in Israel. In fact, he articulated a policy. It sounded pretty similar to President Obama's. Is that really then a fair criticism?
 
 
 
Well, here's the problem.
 
 
 
I mean, and you - and CNN has been covering it for two days now - it is gaffe 13 after gaffe. I mean, you leave Israel, you know, with after insulting the Palestinians. And here's the problem, if you're in fact President Romney, the problem is, you've now offended the Palestinians. And they don't see you as a fair arbitrator.
 
 
 
So in fact he - President Romney would set the peace process back in the Middle East. But to step back from sort of the politics back and forth 14 of it, from a campaign standpoint, I know we want to say that, you know, this one is or that one incident, this gaffe or that gaffe, isn't problematic. But at this point, it's become accumulative. I mean, there is an aggregate 15 problem here, after gaffe after gaffe.
 
 
 
And at some point from just a purely 16 campaign standpoint, I have to pile on with what some Republicans were saying a couple of weeks back, you know, like some of the campaign itself is problematic because some of these statements that are coming out right now should never been green lighted, like the whole line that, the cultural line in the Palestinian stuff.
 
 
 
Someone along the process should have said, there's a way to talk about Israeli exceptionalism without offending its neighbors around them. So that becomes problematic. And no, you're not going to sort of win the presidency 17 on foreign policy. But you can be hurt and undermined by it and this trip has not helped him.