Republican voters
have now decided that foreign policy is a more salient issue than the deficit or the economy for 2016, which means the
uniquely inexperienced GOP field is now fully embracing its national security cred. This is gonna be good. Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Carrie Dann
have the details from a South Carolina event last weekend:
• Here was Marco Rubio, per NBC's Emily Gold: "People ask what should our strategy be on global jihadists and terrorists, I refer them to the movie 'Taken.'… 'We will look for you, we will find you, and we will kill you."
• Here was Scott Walker: "We need a president who's gonna back away from that deal in Iran and set the record straight."
• Rick Santorum: "I think it's time we have a president that honors and supports the American military," he said. "I would just be happy if the president would be able to tell the difference between our friends and our enemies."
• And Ted Cruz: "We saw the ugly face of Islamic terrorism in my home state of Texas in Garland where two jihadists came to commit murder. Thankfully one police officer helped them meet their virgins."
Now, here's what we really have in the way of experience, and it ain't much.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Intelligence Committee, which arguably gives him the most foreign policy experience of anyone in the Republican field. Yet is idea of foreign policy above sounds eerily similar to George W. Bush's comments following the September 11 attacks of 2001. "We're going to smoke them out," Bush promised. That went well.
Speaking of W's foreign policy prowess, Jeb has not only wholeheartedly embraced his older brother's foreign policy team, he has also embraced the Iraq invasion. That also went well. So much for Jeb being his "own man."
Then there's Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker who touted facing down 100,000 peaceful protesters as a show of his ability to quash ISIS. Sure, it may show a laughable lack of judgment/experience, but who knows, maybe Walker can see Canada from his house.
And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz somehow thinks that a shooting in his home state qualifies as national security experience. Not sure that tough talk about virgins is going to make Americans feel any safer.
The only GOP candidate who isn't playing their foreign policy reindeer games thus far is Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, which doesn't necessarily qualify him to be president. It just means he wishes foreign policy would go away as an issue.