Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Mitt Romney and President Obama in Their Second Debate at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
Despite how one feels about President Obama’s policies, he is still the President and Commander in Chief of our Nation. In public, televised settings that will be transmitted around the globe, he should be addressed with respect.
In last night’s debate, Governor Romney gave the appearance that he has, in his mind, already become the President. He spoke rudely to President Obama, reprimanding him as one might speak to a child: “You’ll get your chance in a moment. I’m still speaking.”
As we’ve worried aloud before, Mitt Romney seems to have a mean streak. In an increasingly volatile world, diplomacy and measured words from our President are more important than ever before.
Which leads us to another concern: Mitt Romney’s hostile absorption with the Chinese. In both his first and second debate, Romney seemed hell bent on demonizing China from a public stage — versus quiet, private diplomatic efforts.
I had a flashback to the dissenting opinion authored by U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan in Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 decision which enshrined racial segregation in the South until a more enlightened Supreme Court overturned it in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. While Justice Harlan stood up for the rights of African Americans in his dissent, he effectively demonized the Chinese, stating: “There is a race so different from our own that we do not permit those belonging to it to become citizens of the United States. Persons belonging to it are, with few exceptions, absolutely excluded from our country. I allude to the Chinese race.”
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