At AIPAC, Romney Slams Obama Without Ever Mentioning His Name

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, is getting lots of attention for his speech yesterday to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Romney vigorously attacked President Obama's posture toward Iran, the Palestinians, and the Arab world at large—without ever mentioning the president by name.

Check out some of these thinly veiled attack lines:

The Iranian regime is unalloyed evil, run by people who are at once ruthless and fanatical. Stop thinking that a charm offensive will talk the Iranians out of their pursuit of nuclear weapons. It will not. . . . Once an outstretched hand is met with a clenched fist, it becomes a symbol of weakness and impotence.

I am so very concerned by the current drift in our government's relationship with Israel. . . . In pursuit of a peace process, the United States today has exerted substantial pressure on Israel while putting almost no pressure on the Palestinians and the Arab world.

Inexplicably, the United States now places the burden on Israel to make still more unilateral concessions.

More than any other likely 2012 Republican candidate, Romney has picked up the Bush mantle of attacking Democrats for alleged weakness in confronting U.S. enemies in a war on terror. The title of Romney's forthcoming book: No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.

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