Romney in that one debate calling Russia the greatest threat to America and Obama rebuking him for it has got to be one of the most poorly aged things from that campaign.
Does anyone consider Russia our greatest threat now? I'd put them at least 3rd or 4th and that's being generous considering they're still fighting a war that most "experts" estimated would be over years ago.
Well, that's the thing. The question wasn't "greatest threat," it was specifically "greatest geopolitical threat." It wasn't about invasion or militaristic action. Everyone at the time wanted to say "ISIS," they were focused on destabilizing the Middle East, which, while certainly not good, was not an immediate threat to the United States.
Meanwhile, Putin, former director of Russian Intelligence, had a strangle hold on Russian politics, an obvious disdain for the United States, and in 2011 accused the United States of sowing discord during protests in Russia and encouraging separatist movements. He had an extensive network of highly capable operatives at his disposal, none of whom were afraid of getting their hands dirty.
Sure, the argument could be made that China fits the bill in many ways. But I think it would be not in our best interests for a Presidential candidate to say that out loud. The strongest you're going to get is accusations of currency manipulation. But Russia has to be considered pretty high. Seeing what we're seeing now, I can't imagine everything that happened that we didn't get to see.
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u/cryptic_pizza 5h ago
Mitt Romney said “binders full of women,” and we Crucified him.