The split screen this morning…with Obama speaking in Havana on one side and panic and pain in Brussels on the other…was another reminder of how inclined we are to ignore the rest of the world until suddenly we can’t. Foreign affairs are generally viewed as an intrusion on our domestic politics because if Americans had their druthers, they would never have to think about the rest of the world. Foreign events are the wild and unpredictable card in our usually stacked deck. But today’s events brought the rest of the world right into our living rooms where it will most likely reside until at least the bomber in the white coat is apprehended and authorities can issue a plausible statement about regaining control.
Until then…and it could be weeks…our domestic focus will again be on how to deal with terrorists, wield diplomacy, and exercise American power. In that scenario Bernie Sanders will suffer considerably in comparison to Hillary Clinton. His trump card…her vote for the Iraq War…will be diminished in impact by American preference for action figures, those who do something even if it’s wrong, rather than passive figures, those who seem to waiver between isolationism and idealism and end up being indecisive.
As Americans in a scattering of states today go to vote, pulling themselves away from their TVs and the nonstop commercial for the dangerous world we live in, the candidate with the more serious and bona fide foreign policy chops will be the biggest beneficiary. We shouldn’t be too surprised if stark evidence of a campaign in sudden, irreversible collapse appears as early as tonight.