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Guardian: Obama Must Beware GOP Foreign Policy Vortex

The Republican challenger can talk big, act tough and promise the world, so the president must not to rise to the bait.

Author: Simon Tisdall, Assistant Editor, The Guardian
January 15, 2012

The Guardian's Simon Tisdall writes that Obama must find ways of dealing with Romney's rhetoric without betraying his own beliefs or overreacting to foreign crises.

American election years are always potentially dangerous and this one looks particularly fraught as Mitt Romney, the likely Republican presidential candidate, adopts increasingly confrontational, nationalistic and – arguably – irresponsible positions on delicate international issues in a bid to outflank Barack Obama.

The challenge facing Obama is to stop himself being pressured to go further, act tougher, or behave more forcefully than he would otherwise do by opponents more concerned with vote-winning than wise foreign policymaking. In short, Obama risks being "Romney-ed".

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