From Politico:
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the Republican presidential candidates can – and must – learn about foreign policy basics while on the campaign trail.
Asked in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” about the basic foreign policy gaffes that Republican presidential candidates Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann have made, Rice asserted that a potential president needed – at a minimum – to master the basics of foreign policy.
“I would say to the candidates, you don’t have to know the ins and outs of foreign policy because nobody would expect that kind of exposure. But the basis of foreign policy, you can – you can master those during the campaign. And it’s important for the American people to know that you care enough about these issues to do that,” Rice said.
The former Bush Cabinet official noted that it was crucial for Republican presidential candidates to know the historical role America has played on the world stage.
“A potential president has to know the role of the United States of America and that it’s an exceptional role, that we have, in fact, been willing to bear a lot of burdens over the last 60 plus years in order to promote a balance of power favor – that favors freedom,” she said.
Some of the ones we have seen seem to know nothing and are proud of it. How can we be a world super power if the president has no knowledge of foreign policy? Even as candidates, these people are being watched around the world. Especially to those who don’t understand the democratic process fully, those who are unprepared simply embarrass the United States when they refuse to learn the basics.
A candidate has to be more than a set of sound bytes and cutesy expressions. A presidential candidate has to be able to communicate that he or she has a clear understanding of America’s role in world affairs and where the rest of the world is coming from. Right now our focus is on domestic policy but that is not to say that next week, month or year the focus will not switch drastically. All our candidates will have to pass muster. Some clearly are not ready to do so.
