Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has revealed a precarious grasp of foreign affairs when he appeared unable to answer any questions on the Libya uprising.
In a meeting with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the pizza magnate – and former frontrunner in the Republican leadership contest – stumbled repeatedly when asked whether he agreed with the way Barack Obama dealt with the situation.
Cain, whose star has begun to wane following a string of sexual harassment allegations, struggled to show he understood what had been happening in Libya and why.
He paused, leaning back in his chair before replying: "OK, Libya. President Obama supported the uprising, correct?
"President Obama called for the removal of Gaddafi. Just want to make sure we're talking about the same thing before I say, 'yes I agree,' or 'no I didn't agree.' I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason – nope, that's a different one. I gotta go back to, see … Got all this stuff twirling around in my head. Specifically, what are you asking me, did I agree or not disagree with Obama on?"
His inquisitors tried to eke out what Cain would have done had he been in the White House but to little avail.
He said: "Some people say as president you're supposed to know everything. No you don't. I believe in having all the information, as much of it as I possibly can, rather than making a decision or statement about whether I totally agree or disagree when I wasn't privy to the situation."
After much fidgeting and prevarication, Cain eventually claimed that he would have done a better job than the president.
Cain's spokesman attributed the hesitation to tiredness, saying Cain had only slept for four hours because of a busy campaign schedule when he sat for the interview.
Oops.
The question can be asked of why Cain was in Milwaukee to begin with, since he probably should be concentrating on Iowa or New Hampshire, early primary states. Maybe he was selling books on the book tour part of the presidential candidate campaign. Besides that, why is he doing editorial board interviews if he is so tired he can't answer a fairly basic foreign policy question? He has to be able to articulate more than just saying Obama handled it wrong.
This, unfortunately for his campaign, does nothing to booster his performance that lagged so obviously during the last GOP debate. The subject was foreign policy and it was quite apparent that this is not Cain's strong suit.
Continuing to punt to 'experts' and advisers is not acceptable when one is interviewing for the President of the United States.
Let's go to the video:
Painful. Tired or not, the presidency is a 24/7 job.
No comments:
Post a Comment