This was for Romney sort of his first foreign-policy travel as the nominee, and his visit to Poland in particular was the best part of it, and I think it helped him. It helped him with the Catholics. It helped him with the Polish people. But it's not decisive. I just think it helped him marginally. But it was a good step for him. And I might add, the Polish community is really not too happy with Obama anyhow, on two grounds. One is Obama referred to the camps as the Polish death camps when they, in fact, were the Nazi death camps in occupied Poland. And secondly, he transformed the anti-ballistic missile defense system, which had been promised to Poland. And he argued that this was for economic reasons. And the Polish people are very upset about that. -Mortimer Zuckerman

Share |

Mitt Romney's overseas tour took him to London, Israel, and this week to Poland. In Warsaw, he praised Poland's free-enterprise economy as one for the whole of Europe to emulate, citing Poland's opposition to the quote-unquote false promise of a government-dominated economy. Poland's economy expanded 4.3 percent in 2011, one of the fastest in the 27-member European Union. Governor Romney's Poland visit resonates with many U.S. voters, namely the 10 million Polish-Americans living in the U.S., most of whom are Roman Catholic. Mr. Romney in Warsaw evoked the iconic Pope John Paul II, who visited the U.S. seven times. Poland is predominantly Roman Catholic - 90 percent. Here at home, Roman Catholics constitute 24 percent of the population - 68 million people. In presidential elections, the candidate, Republican or Democrat, who gets the Catholic vote wins the election; e.g., in 2008 candidate Barack Obama won 54 percent of the Catholic vote, and he's president today.