As part of his campaign to paint Newt Gingrich as crazy, Mitt Romney has focused on Newt’s statement that the Palestinians were an “invented” people. Romney argued at the Drake University debate Saturday night that Newt had used “incendiary words” which would “create extraordinary tumult” and said “I’m not a bomb thrower, rhetorically or literally.”
Romney and his campaign have continued to hammer that point, calling Newt’s comments “erratic outspokenness.” Virtually the entire conservative media has joined in the Romney campaign’s complaint.
Yet Romney takes a very different position as to incendiary words regarding China’s currency policy, calling China a “currency manipulator” and a “cheat,” and saying he would slap tariffs on Chinese imports his first day in office:
Romney may be right on Chinese currency manipulation (although he likely is wrong on using the WTO to address the issue).
Much as Newt’s comments angered the Palestinians, Romney’s comments angered the Chinese:
China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that attacks by leading U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Chinese trade and currency practices were irresponsible, and urged him to stop blaming others.Romney last week threatened trade sanctions against China if the world’s No. 2 economy does not halt what he said was currency manipulation, unfair subsidies and rampant intellectual property theft.Romney’s tough stance comes as he has sought to stake out differences with President Barack Obama and tap into the U.S. public’s rising concern over China’s economic and military growth.”We think that that sort of frequently blaming others, looking for scapegoats and even misleading the public, is an irresponsible attitude,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin, Liu told a regular news briefing….In September, the official Xinhua news agency called Romney’s remarks on the value of the yuan currency an “absurd” attempt to play on U.S. voter fears.
Romney likely is correct about China and does not hesitate to speak the truth even at risk of disrupting the current U.S. administration’s diplomacy with China, yet he calls Newt a “rhetorical bomb thrower” for pointing out the truth about the Palestinians.
So I guess you could say Romney was for rhetorical bombs before he was against them.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY