Romney uses quotas to disqualify himself from office

There's an old joke that's become more popular in recent years. "In America they say anyone can become president. Now I know it's true." With it has come the follow-on. "I used to think it didn't matter who was president, now I know I was wrong." For a long time I've believed that if you have to pick someone (for anything) who's beliefs you don't agree with, at least pick someone smart. With someone smart you can at least hope that when the chips are down and reality is staring them in the face, they'll make a reasonable decision. The senior President Bush was a case in point. I didn't vote for him, I didn't like him, and I didn't like what he did. But he understood reality enough to know he shouldn't invade Iraq.

Trying to eliminate Saddam .. would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible ... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq ...there was no viable "exit strategy" we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land." - George Bush, Sr. "A World Transformed"

So, of all the Republicans, I thought that Romney, despite massive political flip-flips, was the least dangerous. But then he spouts off with this zinger.

A Muslim belongs in the Cabinet | csmonitor.com

LAS VEGAS - Mitt Romney tells good jokes. I had the chance to hear a few of them this month at a political fundraiser in Las Vegas, where the Republican presidential contender gave his audience a few good chuckles before going into his domestic and foreign policy agenda.

His platform seemed sound enough analytically – until he demonstrated an aggravating hypocrisy in his reply to my query on one of his key foreign policy positions. It's a stance that should give pause to all Americans who are considering voting for him.

I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that "jihadism" is the principal foreign policy threat facing America today. He answered, "…based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration."

Romney, whose Mormon faith has become the subject of heated debate in Republican caucuses, wants America to be blind to his religious beliefs and judge him on merit instead. Yet he seems to accept excluding Muslims because of their religion, claiming they're too much of a minority for a post in high-level policymaking.

-Mansoor Ijaz

Bizarre. A candidate who thinks he should select his advisors based on a religious quota system?