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from https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/politics/mitt-romney-russia-ukraine/index.html

It's time to admit it: Mitt Romney was right about Russia
Chris Cillizza
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 3:42 PM ET, Tue February 22, 2022
Hear what Romney said about Russia in 2012

(CNN)A decade ago, Mitt Romney went on CNN and made a statement that was
widely perceived as a major mistake.

"Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe,"
Romney, who would be the Republican presidential nominee in the 2012
race against President Barack Obama, told Wolf Blitzer in March of that
year. "They — they fight every cause for the world's worst actors."
Obama and his team pounced on the comment, insisting that it showed
Romney was hopelessly out of touch when it came to the threats facing
the US.
In the third presidential debate between the two candidates in October
2012, Obama went directly after Romney for that remark. "When you were
asked, 'What's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America,' you said 'Russia.' Not al Qaeda; you said Russia," Obama said. "And, the 1980s
are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the Cold
War's been over for 20 years."

The 80s called! Boom! Roasted!

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At the time, the attack worked. Obama cast himself as the candidate who understood the current threats -- led by al Qaeda. Romney was the
candidate still stuck in the Cold War age, a black-and-white figure in a colorful -- and complex -- world.
But today, after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops
into eastern Ukraine, Romney's comments look very, very different. And
by "different," I mean "right," as even some Democrats are now
acknowledging.
"This action by Putin further confirms that Mitt Romney was right when
he called Russia the number one geopolitical foe," California Democratic
Rep. Ted Lieu said on CNN Monday night.
Given that, it's worth revisiting the context around what Romney said
and why.

He was reacting to a hot-mic moment between Obama and then-Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev earlier in 2012. In that exchange, Obama told Medvedev: "This is my last election. And after my election, I have more flexibility."
Republicans were up in arms, insisting that Obama was taking a hard line
with Russia publicly while, apparently, making clear to the country's
leader that he was open to compromise.
In his original interview, Blitzer was asking Romney about Russia in the context of that Obama hot-mic moment. And while his comment about Russia
as America's "number one geopolitical foe" is what drew the most
attention and derision, it was far from the only comment Romney made
about that subject in his interview with Blitzer.
"Russia is not a friendly character on the world stage," Romney said at
one point. "And for this President to be looking for greater
flexibility, where he doesn't have to answer to the American people in
his relations with Russia, is very, very troubling, very alarming."
Pressed by Blitzer on his assertion about the threat posed by Russia,
Romney added this:
"Well, I'm saying in terms of a geopolitical opponent, the nation that
lines up with the world's worst actors. Of course, the greatest threat
that the world faces is a nuclear Iran. A nuclear North Korea is already troubling enough.
"But when these -- these terrible actors pursue their course in the
world and we go to the United Nations looking for ways to stop them,
when -- when Assad, for instance, is murdering his own people, we go --
we go to the United Nations, and who is it that always stands up for the world's worst actors?
"It is always Russia, typically with China alongside."
What looked like a major flub during the 2012 campaign -- and was used
as a political cudgel by Obama -- now looks very, very different. It
should serve as a reminder that history is not written in the moment --
and that what something looks like in that moment is not a guarantee of
what it will always look like.

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