An obvious theme is developing for Obama to use in next year’s election.
Former NM Governor Richardson on Meet the Press: “This President has a great foreign policy record.”
[Without drastic economic/jobs improvement next year, see more of Obama running on foreign policy rather than domestic policy.]
[Theme on MTP: Cain’s lack of foreign policy experience. Gregory asked both Richardson and Huntsman about that.]
Let’s see... I bet Cain is smart enough to give appropriate gifts to foreign dignitaries. He wouldn’t give a blind PM some NTSC region DVDs or a (partially) deaf queen an iPod loaded with his “great” speeches. He seems to have enough dignity to restrain himself from bowing to third world dictators. He seems smart enough to listen to his advisers so he might avoid such foibles as screwing up a toast to a queen. Did I miss anything?
Granted, Herman Cain has been a bit less than reassuring with some of his answers regarding foreign policy but he hasn't said anything terribly wrong, either. I think he is just being cautious. Cain knows full well the MSM is seeking to discredit him and he is probably trying not to give them ammunition. Today, the world is in turmoil, thanks in part to Barack Obama, and no Republican candidate should attempt to offer 'solutions' for complex problems that either don't currently exist or for ones that do and are not amenable to a 30-second sound bite. However, Herman Cain will have to offer more details on his foreign policy outlook as the campaign progresses - and I'm confident that he will do so.
Those who attempt to dismiss Herman Cain as a non-serious publicity-seeker hoping to sell books and increase his future speaking fees are dead wrong and their attempt to insult Cain supporters is not appreciated. I believe that Mr. Cain is one of the more serious people in the nomination campaign. Far more so than people such as Jon Huntsman or even Ron Paul. The media (and Palin-haters) used the same lame tactics against Sarah Palin. "Doesn't have foreign policy credentials", "Not serious", "unqualified", "just wants to sell books and increase speaking fees", blah, blah, blah. Same old, same old. The leftmedia originates this crap and the anti-Cain posters regurgitate it all over FR threads. It will not deter Cain supporters and it sure won't help those trashing Cain thinking this will help 'their' candidate, whoever that may be. Cain's campaign is definitely in the ascendency and none of the GOP primary campaign also-rans are going to catch him with mockery, fake scandals or lame 'foreign policy' criticisms. It hasn't worked for the left and it sure won't work for the supposed 'right'.
It was a 1-question test: Do you support the continued existence of Israel?
Oh yea, for sure, Bill O'Reilly -- the conservative!
Herman Cain is a brilliant man, and when he gets in office will do the best for our country. He also understands the radical Muslim problem, unlike our current president.
But if you want experience, support Santorum:
“Santorum can point to his eight years on the Senate Armed Services committee as proof that he will be prepared to handle an uncertain situation in the Middle East from day one. ..”
We have three great presidential candidates Cain, Santorum and Bachmann, and I hope the primary voters are astute enough to pick one of them.
STUPID MISLEADING MSM HEADLINE ALERT!
The MSM dweebs persist in asking obscure geography "GOTCHA!" questions and demonstrating that they have no clue as to what "Foreign Policy" means.
If I were a candidate I would prepare 10 or 20 "gotcha" geography questions and agree to answer theirs if they answer one of his first.
"Next question please..."
Seems like the current resident of the White House, didn’t know a thing about foreign policy also. So, that shouldn’t be a topic that President should know.
While I can see some truth to concerns about Cain’s views in foreign affairs, would not any President rightly look “at all of the information provided by the intelligence community, the military” before they chose a response to an action by Iran?
That part of Cain’s answer appeared to be laughed at by the questioner, but I think Cain’s answer equated to what any President should do first - consult with the principal advisers.
Just laugh it off. It is only Gandhi’s Phase Two that frontrunner/threat Herman Cain is, and HE HAS TO BE, going through. He’ll survive. They will eventually stop and pick on someone else.
Cain knows more about America’s place in the world than Obama did and does. I would expect a President Cain to appoint people like Boulton and Gingrich to help him. An executive hires the best and brightest as subordinates.
For a professional writer, Mr. Caruba would seem to be forgetting his grade-school spelling and the repetitive drills everyone suffers through (for about twelve years, it seems) on recognizing and differentiating homonyms in the English language. I suspect he might also confuse "there" with "their" and "they're", "through" with "threw", "except" with "accept" and "week" with "weak".
It's really risky to just run an article through a spell-checker before it's to be published on the Web. If it gets read at all, it's likely to be copied, emailed, snipped and shipped to parties with potentially sharper eyes for usage and spelling errors than the author's own.
If by chance Mr. Caruba was using someone else's transcript of the Cain interviews he quoted in his column, it would be permissible to insert "(sic)" after any misspelled words; otherwise it tends to cast the subject as uneducated or illiterate, and we know Mr. Cain is neither.
I know, Caruba's defenders will contend this is not as bad as the out-of-context sound bites that are the stock-in-trade of TV newsrooms. I agree. That kind of "journalism" reflects poorly on all those reporters, editors, producers and talking heads that employ that method of generating higher ratings.
Regardless, writers need to make sure that a quote represents the best estimate of what the subject actually said, hems and haws included as appropriate--but not misspellings. Leave that for the candidates' media releases, where you'll likely find many.