Romney at Yeshiva U

Candidate for president Mitt Romney spoke last week at Yeshiva U. His speech is reproduced here.

It's a weak speech with no specific statement of how he would support Israel. It's heavy on rhetoric and scare tactics - as if he is the first person to discover threats like these -

"Jihadism - violent, radical, fundamental Jihadism - is this century's nightmare. It follows the same dark path as last century's nightmares: fascism and Soviet communism.

"The September 11th Commission reported that al-Qaeda had been trying to acquire or build nuclear weapons for well over a decade. Former CIA Director George Tenet said that Osama bin Laden sees the acquisition of WMD as a 'religious obligation.' Jihadist clerics have issued fatwas authorizing the use of nuclear weapons to... 'defeat the infidels.'

"We are faced with the horrific proposition that those who speak of genocide are developing the capability to carry it out.

"Radical, nuclear Jihad is the greatest threat that faces humanity. It cannot be appeased. It can only be defeated.

We all know this and agree on it. We've seen the videos of 9/11. This kind of politics, implying that he is tough on terrorism - "I am your best hope against evil" - it's dumb. I'd expect more from a man who is supposed to be so smart.

And what about speaking to the issue of religion when at Yeshiva University? Not a whisper of the fact that Romney is a member of a minority religion - something he shares with Orthodox Jews.

I give this speech a C-. C'mon Mitt, surely you can do better.