Robust Romney Says 'Unique US' Should Be Ready to Act Alone

THE INDEPENDENT: Mitt Romney, the front runner for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination, yesterday staked out a robust foreign policy vision, dripping with American exceptionalism and featuring higher military spending and a readiness by the US to go it alone if necessary to protect its interests.

"This is America's moment," he declared. "We should embrace the challenge, not shrink from it, not crawl into an isolationist shell, not wave the white flag of surrender, nor give in to those who assert America's moment has passed. That is utter nonsense."

Mr Romney's speech – in the deliberate setting of the Citadel military college in Charleston, South Carolina, a symbol of the South's warrior traditions and in a state holding one of the first primaries next January – is his first major foreign policy foray in a campaign set to be dominated by the country's grim economic situation. » | Rupert Cornwell in Washington | Saturday, October 08, 2011

THE INDEPENDENT – LEADING ARTICLE: Now the Republicans must choose: Sarah Palin's announcement that she will not seek the presidency, following the similar decision from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie 24 hours earlier, appears to have settled the Republican field for 2012. ¶ A late entrant cannot entirely be ruled out. But to all intents and purposes, this is Mitt Romney's moment. The most important question in American politics now is: can the unloved frontrunner seize it? » | Saturday, October 08, 2011