Romney’s foreign tour isn’t derailing his campaign

Mitt Romney arrives in Poland today on the third and final leg of a foreign tour that has already taken him to London and Israel. While he may not have the obvious charm of Obama, predictions of his campaign being derailed by this foreign tour misunderstand Romney’s strategy.

Foreign pundits are perennially guilty of ascribing too much importance to the foreign trips of prospective presidential candidates from the United States. When Obama visited Europe, the Middle East, and Afghanistan in the run up to the 2008 election – to mostly fawning press coverage – he only enjoyed a short-lived boost in the polls over his Republican candidate. His lead grew to nine points and then dropped to just one within days.

And while the foreign press might be pillorying Romney’s efforts abroad, Obama’s reputation is hardly glowing. Polling results released by Pew Research last month revealed that support for Obama’s policies has fallen sharply across Europe and the Muslim world; by 15 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.