Osg2 20120729 ROMNEY

The Osgood File.  This is Dave Ross on the CBS Radio Network

After warming up his diplomatic chops in London to – I think it’s fair to say – mixed reviews, Mitt Romney tried his hand in Israel.  And reporters seemed a little confused.  We’ll try to figure out whose fault that is after this:

(((SPOT)))

In Jerusalem, Mitt Romney got an enthusiastic welcome from Prime Minister Netanyahu:

"You've been a personal friend of mine, and a strong friend of the State of Israel." (:06)

So strong a friend in fact that one of Romney’s aides implied to reporters that if Israel felt it had to bomb Iran’s nuclear, a Romney administration would respect that decision.”

That sounded tantalizingly close to what we call news, since it appeared to differ from official US policy and therefore would violate Romney’s own policy of not criticizing American policy on foreign soil. 
So on Face The Nation, CBS correspondent Jan Crawford asked him to clarify:
"(Crawford:) Would you or would you not then support Israel's bombing of Iran? (Romney:) We should use every diplomatic and political vehicle that's available to us to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear capability state. If all those options fail, then we do have other options and we don't take those other options off the table. But that's as far as I'm willing to go in terms of discussing this matter while on foreign soil." (:25)
A good diplomatic response, communicating approximately nothing.

But then he gave a campaign speech to Israeli campaign donors which again seemed tantalizingly close to containing some content:
"We cannot stand silent as those who seek to undermine Israel voice their criticisms - and we certainly should not join in that criticism. Diplomatic distance in [our] public between our nations emboldens Israel's adversaries." (:16)

Talking that real slow – he said “Diplomatic distance in our public between our nations....  emboldens Israel’s adversaries:

There’s a little grammatical ambiguity there, but he seems to be saying US diplomats should never express in PUBLIC any disagreement with Israel.  Which would fix the ambiguity problem.  In the future, if reporters find themselves confused about where Mr Romney stands… apparently they can just ask Mr. Netanyahu.

The Osgood File.  Dave Ross on the CBS Radio Network.