This guy needs to get a damn clue as to what's going on in the world. A senior aide to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee admitted Friday that the former Arkansas governor had "no foreign policy credentials" after his comments reacting to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto raised questions. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/28/huckabee.foreign.policy/index.html
If you think that whoever is elected, from either party, knows what they need to know about foreign policy, the economy, and various other issues that will face them without the needs for good advisors, then you are sorely misinformed. Presidents have always needed advisors who specialize in certain areas. Hence, the modern day cabinet.
All you say is true. It is also true that a president has to have the brainpower and interest necessary to understand those advisors and to call BS when appropriate. A corollary to that is they have to have the judgment to select good advisors and recognize the important service to the country done by those advisors... Yes men and political patronage don't cut it anymore as our current administration shows. Competence does matter. Decisions made from the gut, eh, not so much.
Hillary, the "experienced" one, has the same issues: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/02/biden-highlights-clinton-pakistan-gaffe/ (CNN) — Democrat Joe Biden suggested Tuesday that presidential rival Hillary Clinton doesn't adequately understand recent events in Pakistan. The Delaware senator was responding to news that Clinton suggested in two recent interviews that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is up for reelection this month. Musharraf was actually reelected in October, and the upcoming Pakistani elections are parliamentary, not presidential. "We have a number of candidates who are well-intentioned but don't understand Pakistan," Biden said at a campaign event Tuesday. "One of the leading candidates — God love her." "There are good people running," continued the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who has made his foreign policy credentials a centerpiece of his long shot presidential bid. "But to say Musharraf is up for election! Musharraf was elected — fairly or unfairly — president six months ago. It's about a parliamentary election!" Clinton's comments came in an interview with ABC Sunday, in which she said, "[Musharraf] could be the only person on the ballot. I don't think that's a real election." The New York senator also made similar comments during an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer last week, saying then, ""If President Musharraf wishes to stand for election, then he should abide by the same rules that every other candidate will have to follow." Both gaffes were first noted by conservative Thomas Houlahan, writing for the Middle East Times. The Clinton campaign has not yet returned a request for comment on Biden's comments, but said yesterday the New York Democrat was referring to Musharraf's party, not himself in particular. Republican Mike Huckabee took heat last week for also getting key facts about Pakistan wrong in the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto's death. He first suggested the country remained under martial law (it was lifted a few weeks ago) and later said that Pakistan shares its eastern border with Afghanistan (it shares its western border.) I like how the spin of the original quotes (bolded) doesn't even make any sense.
this is one of those things in which voters are going to have to decide for themselves what is most important to them. Unfortunately for Hillary, foreign policy should be one of her strong points. on a side note, could there be a more polar opposite general election if the candidates end up as obama vs. huckabee?
Saw a feature on CNN (?) on the bottom-feeding Democratic candidates-- the ones with all the valuable experience: Biden, Richardson, Dodd. They have something like 90% of the experience and 3% of the vote. What a system we have... Biden asked a very poignant question: who would you want to be president TODAY?
As a guy who supported Richardson that's been bugging me for awhile. At this point the best I can hope for is that Richardson, Biden and Dodd will be advising whoever wins.
If you think that I said that anybody could survive without advisory help than you are even more sorely misinformed. actually most powerful presidential advisers in recent years have rarely even held cabinet level posts, and rather have held chief of staff or NSC positions, with some exceptions like Rummy, etc. Anyway, my point was that we elected an avowed anti-intellectual with disdain for anything that coiuld be be considered elitist, such as learning the nuances of foreign policy, and convicned that all he had to do was talk to jesus who'd show him the way. As such, he was more than happy to delegate to his advisors and defer to their judgment (except in the cases of the lacky/yesmen type advisors like the former AG, in which case they were both asleep at the switch while the federalist society ran the DOJ. The results speak for themsleves.
If you think Huckabee is bad, think for a moment about Obama. He wanted to invade Pakistan not too long ago. He has no leadership credentials to speak of, nor does he have even a sniff of foreign policy experience (other than living abroad at a young age, lol).
Another lie. Yawn. What he said was that if there was actionable intelligence about Bin Laden's whereabouts and Musharraf wouldn't act, he would. I know you support a president who "isn't all that concerned" about Bin Laden, but most of us would like him caught or killed. You still with the biggest flip flopper in the history of presidential politics, by the way?
Some of that sounds familiar. Who was it that got elected with no foreign policy experience, wanted to invade Middle East countries, and had no real leadership credentials except in a largely ceremonial post as governor of Texas? What was that guy's name? If you want foreign policy experience, Bill Richardson is the only legit Democrat to vote for. I hope whoever wins the nomination at least looks to him as a VP or for a cabinet position (Sec. of State).
