That’s poppycock. Who Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Shabaab, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, or the hundreds of other terrorist organizations are, individually, isn’t critical for a leader of the United States, let alone a candidate, to know off the top of his/her head.
Case in point, HH asked about Jabhat al-Nusra. Which isn’t even the name typically used to describe that cretin outfit. Its a name you would only use if you were trying to name drop and act smarter than the next guy.
Who leads any of these groups today is minutia. Kill one, another pops up. We’re fighting jihadist islam, not mo, hadhi, and jimbo.
Hell, I’m guessing Donald Trump is smart enough to know Islam isn’t the “religion of peace.” I don’t think any of the GOPe candidates can even get that fundamental question right. Shouldn’t that disqualify all of them from running for office?
So long as you want technocrats who speak politicalese, you’ll get the same results we’ve been getting. Which is $18 tril debt, a culture upside down, and increasing poverty. Rubio can’t even tell things aren’t going great.
Our powers that be, including HH, couldn’t tell us that Boko Haram was a terrorist group until 2013. And much of the RNC’s senate lineup, who’s jocks HH carries, apparently can’t tell that Iran sponsors terrorism such that they should work to make sure Iran doesn’t get international funding to continue. Thanks Corker et al.
We need LEADERSHIP. Not people who want to keep playing the same political games so that the same pockets get filled (be it political consultants, analysts, crony capitalists, or their bedmates).
Which brings up a good point, who gave Hewitt those questions?
It’s not important that candidates pass trivia tests, I agree. That’s inside the beltway perspective, imposed on candidates for decades by Washington press corp, who want to revel in their minutia as an intellectual status symbol. I’ve longed for years for some candidate to brush it off on the way past the questioner to an articulation of the correct principle. Principals make encyclopedic knowledge unnecessary.
That said, this is the opposite of what Trump is doing. The candidate who would simply say “I don’t recognize the name. What’s the point of the question?” - would be the one I’d like. But the opposite of this is to be thin-skinned and whiny, complaining that some reporter is trying to play “gotcha”, as if the leader of the free world is not going to have “gotchas” played on him all day long.
Trump is not brushing past trivia in order to articulate principle (which would Reagenesque.) He’s whining. He’s a fragile flower with a thin coat of bluster on top. And not a conservative.