Thanks, Mitt.

Thanks, Mitt.

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that Mitt Romney’s characterization of Moscow as the United States’ “number one geopolitical foe” has actually helped Russia. The Russian leader said Romney’s comments strengthened his resolve to oppose NATO’s plan for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, a system Russia believes will degrade its nuclear deterrent. The U.S. insists the system is aimed at Iran, not Russia. “I’m grateful to him (Romney) for formulating his stance so clearly because he has once again proven the correctness of our approach to missile defense problems,” Putin told reporters, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

I was going to point to this, from yesterday, as more evidence of Mitt Romney's ability to damage foreign relations even long before he is ever given the reins of the presidency, but today's Mitt debacle makes it feel even worse Got that? Putin is "grateful" for the Romney team's inexplicable belligerence towards Russia because it allows Russia to justify being more belligerent itself in blocking U.S. defense programs. Mitt's not anywhere near the White House yet, but he's still managing to screw up foreign relations merely through his ridiculous campaign-trail rhetoric. And it's what right-wingers in both countries want: a pretext for worse relations.

Before Romney's latest fiasco of claiming the president was "sympathizing" with Libyan attackers—with a damn smirk on his face—this was merely more evidence of Mitt's foreign policy incompetence and the damage it could do (and is doing). Today's events, however, seem to suggest Romney not only has no coherent foreign policy stance or skills, he really doesn't even particularly care. Everything is about him, and what will help him gain higher office.

We've got, what, nine weeks left until the election? Maybe Mitt should just crawl into a box until then. He's not just horrible at this, he's outright dangerous—I can't even imagine how many nations he'll be pissing off between now and then.

