Opinion

A winning road trip

Endorsed by a hero: Mitt Romney’s meeting with Poland’s Lech Walesa is sure to show up in plenty of campaign ads this fall. (Reuters)

Closing out with a home run — an endorsement from Poland’s national hero, Lech Walesa — Mitt Romney ended his high-profile foreign road trip at least 2 for 3.

The journey to three well-targeted world spots was meant to show some world-savvy, hint at a foreign-policy philosophy and capture votes in swing states. And, despite critical commentary from media types (whom he wasn’t trying to impress), it did just that.

Of course, the value of Romney’s trip to London, Jerusalem and Warsaw will ultimately be measured in November, by the effect it has on, say, Jewish voters in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. And so-far unenthusiastic Evangelical Republicans down south. And on Catholics, and especially Polish-Americans, in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Romney was careful not to overtly violate the Cold War dictum that “politics stops at the water’s edge” — a line then-Sen. Barack Obama blatantly crossed in Berlin during a similar trip in 2008.

But these days all politics are, to a degree, global. The foreign press takes sides with or against US candidates. And politicians abroad indicate preference — British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres, to name a few, for President Obama.

So, too, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plainly leans toward Romney, while Walesa outright endorsed him.

Yet the Republican candidate wasn’t just looking at scattered constituencies when he picked Britain, Israel and Poland for his maiden foray into world affairs. He was also highlighting Obama’s perceived slights of these US allies — appealing to voters angered by a foreign policy they see as based on coddling America’s adversaries while neglecting its friends.

Voters appalled when the then-new president returned to the Brits a Churchill bust that had graced the White House since 9/11. Or angered when Washington remained neutral (at best) as Britain’s dispute with Argentina over the Falklands reignited.

Or shocked by Obama’s chilly relations with Netanyahu, and his abrupt cancelation of deals to build missile-defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic — because those deals angered the Russians, whom the Poles and Czechs understandably distrust.

Yes, the British press went to town on the Republican guest. London Mayor Boris Johnson ridiculed him, and Cameron referred to one of Romney’s proudest achievements — saving the 2002 Utah Olympics from disaster — as some obscure event “in the middle of nowhere.”

Yet the trip turned up after that, as he won cheers in Jerusalem.

Fine: Peres and Barak vouched for Obama’s friendship to Israel, and some of the Israeli press went after him. But Romney publicly touched on everything that has infuriated Israel supporters here for nearly four years: He fullly supported the Jewish state on Iran (as opposed to Obama’s “we know what’s best for you” stance); he clearly recognized Jerusalem as the capital; he admired Israel’s achievements.

You’ll see Romney’s Jerusalem speech in plenty of campaign ads — along with Walesa’s embrace.

As he left Israel, critics were crying “racism” over the candidate’s remarks condemning the economically-destructive Palestinian “culture.” But then he landed in Poland — a country that has managed to revolutionize its political and economic culture, and is doing fantastically well.

Saluting Pope John Paul II and getting Walesa’s endorsement, Romney said, “I, and my fellow Americans, are inspired by the path of freedom tread by the people of Poland.”

Surely, Romney will hark back to that theme in the foreign-policy segment of his debates with Obama.

His fiercest critics will insist he stumbled awfully at every stop, but Romney’s trip should help him win the confidence of several yet-unconvinced Republicans, swing a few disappointed former Obama fans his way and perhaps even gain some undecided votes.

It won’t win him the election, which (barring a major foreign crisis) will turn on economic issues. But from a purely political point of view this trip was quite successful, contrary to the media chorus.

And that’s not bad for a candidate who vowed, when abroad, to leave politics behind.

Twitter: @bennyavni