The Romney campaign suggested Friday that President Obama should release notes and transcripts from his meetings with world leaders to prove that he is not promising world leaders to change his position after November, in a statement to National Journal. Democrats responded that this request betray’s Romney’s foreign policy “naiveté.”
The statement, from Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul, came in response to a call from the Obama campaign that Romney release 30 years worth of tax returns. Team Obama claims that a policy that allowed Bain Capital employees to invest retirement money in companies bought by Bain through a special share class, raises “questions about Romney’s manipulation of the tax laws.” Saul’s response brought the subject back to Obama with a reference to his “hot mic” incident with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev:
“The Obama campaign is playing politics, just as he’s doing in his conduct of foreign policy,” Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul wrote. “Obama should release the notes and transcripts of all his meetings with world leaders so the American people can be satisfied that he’s not promising to sell out the country’s interests after the election is over.”
The DNC responded with a statement from Dr. Colin Kahl, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, stressing the problems with releasing sensitive information from these meetings:
Having been in many sensitive meetings with our allies around the world, the Romney campaign’s comment shows a remarkable naiveté about foreign policy.
For example, does Governor Romney think we should release all the notes and transcripts of the President’s conversations with our allies, such as the Israelis and Europeans, tipping our hand to Tehran about every last element of our strategy to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon?
Our friends around the world need to trust that they can speak with the President of the United States in confidence, and that these conversations will not be politicized during an election. Such a dramatic and unprecedented step would undermine the ability of the United States to successfully conduct foreign policy at a time when our nation faces numerous challenges abroad, and suggesting it is just a reckless attempt to score cheap political points. It is yet another indication that Mitt Romney is not ready to be Commander-in-Chief.
