Erstwhile Presidential aspirant Mitt Romney writes a scathing editorial in the National Review Online today (read it here) which calls President Obama "a timid advocate of freedom at best." He blasts the President for sitting through Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's blistering 50 minute attack on the United States at the Summit of the Americas and offering only what Romney sees as a mild rebuke in return. He admonishes the President for not responding to the North Korean missile launch with financial punishments or sanctions, and for offering "no hint of military options" toward Iran for violating the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. "Ahmadinejad can act with confidence that the forceful options once on our proverbial table have been shelved," Romney writes. He fails to note, predictably, that the enhanced capabilities in North Korea and Iran in question were largely developed under President Bush's watch. And although he criticizes Obama for failing to deter nuclear brinkmanship, he doesn't mention the President's proposal for a new arms control regime or his anti-nukes speech in Prague. Still, it is a forceful, uncompromising critique that is bound to get conservative hearts racing. 

Romney has been a fairly regular face on cable TV over the past few months, and up until now has offered measured criticism of the administration. That he would choose foreign policy as the subject for his most vigorous attack, when his notable strong suit is economics and finance, is a likely window to his barely sublimated Presidential ambitions. And that he chose conservative magazine the National Review to publish this attack, rather than the Wall Street Journal or the Boston Globe where he has published before, gives us a clue as to just who he is burnishing his foreign policy credentials for: GOP party faithful.

Here's a taste of his oped (after the jump):

The Venezuelan Embassy in Trinidad has been releasing attention-grabbing communiques throughout this Summit, another way of enabling their President to pervade news coverage. The latest one caught administration officials by surprise. The Embassy says that Chavez is considering the possibility of naming an ambassador to the U.S. Chavez dramatically recalled his ambassador and expelled the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela in 2008, saying that the posts would only be filled again once the U.S. had a government that "respected" Latin America. Perhaps that day has arrived. “It is possible we will begin evaluating the designation of an ambassador in the United States.  We want to move in that direction. We take Obama at his word, with the one difference we have: we are socialists,” President Chávez said today, according to the release. Chavez also apparently spoke with Secretary Clinton. The communique claims that Clinton "affirmed" that the two nations would soon begin "working meetings". “I spoke with the Secretary of State.  She thanked me for the references [to the Clinton presidency], which are not new—every time I have been asked in the past few years about the possibility of improving relations, I have replied with the Clinton era as an example.  I have said it and I have repeated it here and she thanked me for it.  I sent greetings to [Bill] Clinton, with whom we had dialogue as the human beings we are,” the release attributes Chavez with saying.

But when ABC's Jake Tapper questioned administration officials about these developments at a press briefing this evening, they were blank-faced, simply replying that they'd have to get back to him. You won't be seeing this exchange on GMA tomorrow though. Television cameras weren't allowed into the briefing, causing consternation among TV correspondents and prompting Energy Secretary Steven Chu, one of the officials involved, to wonder if he should ask the White House press team "why I am not physically presentable?" Don't worry Dr. Chu. We think you look just fine.

While most U.S. reporters expected South American leaders to ramp up pressure on President Obama to dissolve the embargo on Cuba during last night's opening ceremony, few expected the scorching, 50-minute long critique of the capitalist system offered by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. And although Obama urged leaders to look to the future -- to "move forward with a new sense of partnership" -- the night's speeches were firmly rooted in the past.

All of the speeches last night seemed directed, to varying degrees, towards the U.S. president, most referencing historical disputes. Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner called the Cuba embargo "anachronistic" but was careful that her speech not constitute a "telling off" of Obama. "It’s simply an exercise to look back at what happened," she said. Ortega appeared to have no such qualms. Although he read a letter from Cuban President Raul Castro that absolved the President of blame for the Bay of Pigs (POTUS, born August 4 1961, was in utero at the time of the invasion), he railed on the United States for supporting a capitalist system that brings about "poverty, misery" and assymetrical development, and he called for a global alternative to capitalism. During his peripatetic and indulgent speech (Ortega knowingly spoke for well over his allocated time), Ortega said he refused to call the meeting the "Summit of the Americas" while Cuba and Puerto Rico are not represented.

This is Obama's first experience of a frosty international reception, but he appeared characteristically unfazed. And the iciness certainly wasn't pervasive -- not counting those on the dais, Obama seemed pretty popular in the auditorium. He received the biggest response during the entrance procession, with many delegates applauding loudly and leaping to their feet. When Obama coaxed his audience to be forward looking, they were most responsive: his biggest applause came when he said  "we cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements" and "I didn't come here to debate the past -- I came here to deal with the future."

Obama departed from his prepared remarks to briefly respond to Ortega's blistering rhetoric. Here is what he added at the podium, courtesy of the White House transcript: (after the jump, click MORE)

The purpose of this trip is largely symbolic. Reporters yesterday quizzed Robert Gibbs about what concrete outcomes the U.S. is hoping for from the Summit but his responses were consistently vague: “to re-engage…to listen, to learn and to help lead.” One aide expressed some surprise that the President decided to make this trip so soon after the G-20, but said that it underscored the importance of sending a strong, positive message to Latin America. That message? You’re important. We care.  But the Administration might get more than it bargained for. Already Cuba is dominating local and international media, and cable channels are bound to chatter about the President’s first encounter with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (and the slight possibility the two men will have an impromptu side chat) all weekend. Stay tuned.

In advance of the President's trip to Mexico and Trinidad later this week, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has announced that the United States will be easing restrictions on trade and travel to Cuba. (Interestingly the announcement was made first by Gibbs in English at the daily briefing and then by foreign policy adviser Dan Restrepo in Spanish - an inclusive nod to hispanic communities.) In line with his campaign promises, Obama will lift restrictions imposed by President Bush in 2004, thereby allowing Cuban-American families to make unlimited visits and send unlimited amounts of money (known as remittances) to family members on the island. The administration will allow for expanded humanitarian aid to Cuba and for the construction of telecommunications links between the two countries. Obama is expected to be pressured by South and Central American leaders to fully lift the trade embargo on Cuba at this week's Summit. President Chavez of Venzuela is also likely to push for Cuba's readmittance to the Organization of American States. 

Easing restrictions on Cuba might have been politically untenable not long ago, particularly in years where Florida, home to the nation's largest Cuban-American population, was the key to the Presidency. But the power of that constituency has been lessened by an influx of immigrants from other Latin American countries and, even with his promises to lift restrictions, Obama won Florida convincingly. It's also early enough in Obama's presidency for anger over lifting restrictions to dissipate some before Florida takes the electoral spotlight again. Indeed demographic changes may make it politically possible for Obama to consider easing restrictions even further. We know you've given up smoking cigarettes Mr. President, but Cuban cigars anyone?

There are some mixed signals here though. The White House couched the move as "reaching out to the Cuban people",  but the announcement was not made by the President himself which, as Chuck Todd pointed out during the briefing, is unusual for such a major policy shift.