it’s peacetime, you know

Steve Benen: In a published op-ed yesterday, former Gov. Mitt Romney slammed President Obama for launching “one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in American history.” It’s a bizarre argument for several reasons, not the least of which is that this isn’t peacetime.

After this caused a bit of a stir yesterday afternoon, Romney’s team walked it back. As it turns out, the claim wasn’t intended to be a factual statement.

That word “peacetime” doesn’t really jibe, does it? Team Romney has an explanation for that: It was a mistake. “He meant to say since World War II,” said Romney’s PAC spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, in an e-mail.

….Jed Lewison didn’t find the explanation especially persuasive: “Uh, say what now? How do you go from making a point about “peacetime” spending to saying you meant post-WWII? And how do you make that mistake in the first place?”

….I was curious to see how (and whether) the media picked up on this … Would it be enough to get political reporters’ attention? Not really; major media outlets generally didn’t care….

I’m curious – if an inexperienced Democratic candidate with no background in foreign policy or military affairs described a time of multiple wars as “peacetime,” would he or she ever live it down? Or would it be seen as evidence that Dems lack credibility on international affairs?

Full article here