There was little doubt about the kind of foreign policy a Mitt Romney administration was going to run from the moment he met with Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Lech Walesa in Warsaw. It is even likely that the bust of Sir Winston Churchill might be returned to the Oval Office. Romney, however, gave an address last night which is presented as channeled through Rush Limbaugh whose take I could not improve on. First Limbaugh:

Another tremendous speech by Mitt Romney just now. Let me tell you something. This man is truly showing his presidential timbre.

And now Romney, this from his speech:

When we look at the Middle East today, with Iran closer than ever to nuclear weapons capability, with the conflict in Syria threatening to destabilize the region, and with violent extremists on the march — and with an American ambassador and three others dead likely at the hands of Al-Qaeda affiliates — it’s clear that the risk of conflict in the region is higher now than when the president took office. I know the president hopes for a safer, freer, and more prosperous Middle East allied with us. I share this hope.

But hope is not a strategy.

What a line! Hope (and change) is not a strategy. The difference between Romney and Obama could not be more clear and the distance could not be greater. If they elect Obama after this, the US will have raised the white flag and we here, way off in the South Pacific, are for all practical purposes to be left on our own.

The full speech can be found here. Articulate and as clear eyed as you could wish in the increasingly dangerous world in which we live.