Mitt Romney: Democrats threw Israel under bus

Mitt Romney on Wednesday slammed the Democratic Party’s initial decision to remove from its platform a passage affirming Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, calling it just “one more example of Israel being thrown under the bus by the president.”
By MACKENZIE WEINGER

Romney — in an interview filmed before the Democrats restored both the word “God” and the passage about Jerusalem to the platform — told Fox News’s Carl Cameron that the omission of Jerusalem was a “very troubling development.”

“The president and his party have now changed their position. They now say that they’re not certain what the capital of Israel might be,” Romney said. “I find that one more example of Israel being thrown under the bus by the president. I think it’s a very sad day.”

The Republican presidential nominee told Fox the removal of the passage “will be recognized for what it is by people across America and across the world.”

“When we have our best friend in the Middle East, a nation which shares our values, a nation now under extraordinary threat and distress when nations around it like Syria and Egypt are going through tumult of their own, for us at a stage like this, to take an action of that nature, to cease calling Jerusalem the capital of Israel — this is a very troubling development and I think one which will be recognized for what it is by people across America and across the world,” Romney added.

Romney also said the removal of any reference to God in the initial 2012 version of the platform “suggests a party which is increasingly out of touch with the mainstream of American people. I think this party is veering further and further away to an extreme wing that Americans don’t recognize it.”

Romney's new foe: Batman's 'Bane'

This summer's much-anticiapted Hollywood blockbuster, "The Dark Knight Rises," is getting an unusual boost from Democrats and other foes of Mitt Romney who are eager to tie the Gotham crushing villain to the GOP presidential candidate. Their angle: the mask-wearing, "Venom" gas breathing bad guy has a name that sounds just like Romney's former investment firm that President Obama has been blasting as a jobs killer.

"Bane" is the terrorist in the new movie who drives the caped crusader out of semi-retirement in the final Batman movie. Democrats, who believe they have Romney on the ropes over the president's assault on his leadership at Bain Capital, said the comparisons are too rich to ignore.

"It has been observed that movies can reflect the national mood," said Democratic advisor and former Clinton aide Christopher Lehane. "Whether it is spelled Bain and being put out by the Obama campaign or Bane and being out by Hollywood, the narratives are similar: a highly intelligent villain with offshore interests and a past both are seeking to cover up who had a powerful father and is set on pillaging society," he added.

As the Friday release date has neared, liberal blogs were the first to connect Batman's toughest foe with Romney's firm. But now even some conservatives, concerned Romney isn't fighting the Bain attacks hard enough, see a similarity in the epic DC Comics fight and the political campaign.

Conservative commentator Jed Babbin told Secrets, "Now we have the new Batman movie with super-villain Bane, the comic book bad guy who broke the Bat's back. How long will it take for the Obama campaign to link the two, making Romney the man who will break the back of the economy? Romney can't win if he's constantly on the defensive," he said.

Even GOP advisor Frank Luntz jumped into the fray. "Hollywood does it again," he told Secrets. "[Romney] had to know all this was coming and he should have done a lot more to prepare for it."

But conservative analyst Greg Muller doesn't buy the connection or the Bain attacks. "Democrats are truly living in fantasy land if they think the Bain story is anything more than a little summertime blues for Romney," he said. "The election will be a referendum on Obama socialism and the Obama economy. Wonder if the Batmobile was made in China."

Democratic strategist Karl Frisch suggests a Romney comparison instead to Mr. Burns, the devilish nuclear power plant owner on the Simpsons. "The similarities are endless."

And even while playing up the Bane-Bain tie, Lehane suggested that Romney is a weak version. "The 'Bain Romney' should at least endeavor to match the comic book Bane in at least one way: prove to be a worthy adversary. Bane never asked Batman to apologize--neither superheroes nor super villains nor candidates for president should ever ask for apologies from their opponents if they are to be taken serious," he said in a reference to Romney's demand of an apology from Obama for his Bain attacks.

ROMNEY NARROWS VP CHOICES; CONDI EMERGES AS FRONTRUNNER

Late Thursday evening, Mitt Romney's presidential campaign launched a new fundraising drive, 'Meet The VP' -- just as Romney himself has narrowed the field of candidates to a handful, sources reveal.

And a surprise name is now near the top of the list: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice!
The timing of the announcement is now set for 'coming weeks'.

It was Condi who received two standing ovations at Romney's Utah retreat a few weeks ago, and everyone left with her name on their lips.

Rice made an extended argument for American leadership in the world.

In recent days, she emailed supporters:

"2012 is perhaps a turning point for the United States."

"The upcoming elections loom as one of the most important in my lifetime," she warned. "I'm very often asked to speak about our current foreign policy and the challenges that lie before us. However, we, as a country, are not going to be able to address any of those international challenges unless we first get our domestic house in order."