People will make a big deal out of the Romney campaign trip overseas, but it won’t play a role in the presidential race by the time the general election kicks off in the fall.

The criticism over Mitt Romney’s performance overseas recently won’t mean much by the time the general election kicks into full swing.

When recycling some of the concerns that others had about British security efforts for the 2012 Summer Olympics, the former governor and current Republican presidential nominee was internationally ripped for this comments. When commenting on the state of Middle East affairs in an effort to show a strong stance with Israel, Mr. Romney was taken to task about his Jerusalem speech by both the Palestinians and Chinese alike. Even with subtle comments of praise – as was the case with Mr. Romney’s comments on the Israeli health care system – he drew questions as his remarks made some question if the compliment contradicted his own opposition to the United States’ Affordable Care Act and the individual mandate that is akin to the Israeli system.

And yet, it won’t matter in about 4 weeks.

As was the case in 2008, the American presidential race this year will focus on how Americans pull out of this ongoing economic lull – or if this has become the new reality of the 21st century. This race will come down to the debates after the convention, meaning that the newscycle-driven attention span of Americans will likely allow Mr. Romney the opportunity to escape to the GOP Convention without having to worry much about the aftermath of this trip.

Further, arguments about needing the foreign policy experience in order to fill the role of Commander-in-Chief are weakened as a result of past results. Experience was cast aside repeatedly in 2008 in both the Democratic presidential primary process as well as during the 2008 general election. Both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden both held more foreign policy experience in the early part of 2008, while John McCain held both Washington foreign policy experience and military service in the fall that year – all to no avail at the polls. Ironically, those that may choose to make the experience argument this cycle benefited from the nation’s willingness to overlook Senator Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience as well as his truncated Washington tenure.

Catch more of Lenny McAllister’s “Missed Foreign Opportunities Won’t Be Soon Missed” on Politic365
See more now available in

“Spoken Thoughts of an Amalgamated Advocate in Today’s America”

Also now available on Kindle