This is Herman Cain Boning Up on Foreign Policy!!

Posted By Daniel W. Drezner Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - 3:42 PM Share

Every time I think I'm done picking on Herman Cain's absence of foreign policy thought, his campaign pulls me back in! 

According to The Daily Caller, Cain is planning to give a major foreign policy address... er... at some point.  Which, given his frontrunner status, is probably a good thing. 

I'd leave it at that, except that this story clearly represents the Cain campaign's efforts to push back on the notion that he doesn't know enough about foreign affairs.  And so we get... the following:

Almost every day, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is handed a one-page briefing from his chief foreign policy adviser on news from around the world.

It’s one of several things his campaign says the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO, who has never held elective office before, is now doing to bone up on foreign policy — especially as he faces a big test in November at a GOP debate on national security issues.

“He’s really getting up to speed a lot more so than people give him credit for,” J.D. Gordon, Cain’s foreign policy and national security adviser who prepares the briefings, said in an interview with The Daily Caller on Monday....

Gordon says Cain has been receiving counsel from people well known in the foreign policy community. While Gordon won’t say who Cain talks with, Cain has admitted he admires people like former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton.

Other steps Cain has taken to educate himself about foreign policy, Gordon said, include his visit to Israel in August “to learn the facts on the ground.”

“He met with the deputy prime minister and the mayor of Jerusalem,” Gordon said (emphasis added).

It's the "almost" that kills me. 

Look, I get that Cain is going to put the United back in the United States of America, and the economy is really, really super-important.  So are the decisions to expend blood and treasure around the world, however.  This kind of spin on Cain's foreign policy interest  -- and, bear in mind, spin is the comparative advantage of Cain's chief foreign policy advisor -- is just f***ing absurd. 

EXPLORE:U.S. FOREIGN POLICY, ELECTION 2012, HERMAN CAIN, 2012 CAMPAIGN, FOREIGN POLICY, STUPIDITY SO STRONG IT BURNS, UNITED STATES
 

BUZZ KILLINGTON

4:08 PM ET

October 25, 2011

A whole page?

Wow! Apparently, every morning, I spend *way* more time reading news than I need to, if one page is enough to prepare for the Presidency.

 

ZORRO

6:33 PM ET

October 25, 2011

Cain played Jean-Luc Picard?

Then he will get the Trekkie vote ;)

 

STEVE_M

6:34 PM ET

October 25, 2011

But...

It's one REALLY good page! So that makes up for it, right...?

 

HURRICANEWARNING

6:35 PM ET

October 25, 2011

unbelievable. These people

unbelievable. These people running for the presidential nom. are complete idiots. Politics should be outlawed, and we should create a man v.s. beast test to become president. Something along the lines of every 4 years the president has to kill a bear with a pocket knife, and then pass a series of academic tests. I would rather have that person in office than a Herman "Pizza-Man" Cain.

 

NATEOMC

6:54 PM ET

October 25, 2011

Facepalm

Pretty much sums up American politics today.

 

DELTA22

8:40 PM ET

October 25, 2011

Worse than nothing.

"Cain has admitted he admires people like former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton."

So he sees John Bolton as a paragon of foreign policy? I liked him better when he knew nothing.

 

GRANT

1:43 PM ET

October 26, 2011

I will admit that Obama

I will admit that Obama wasn't a veteran of foreign affairs when he took office, but at least he didn't state he admired an embarrassment such as Bolton.

 

DIPLOMARK

5:24 PM ET

October 26, 2011

Little Actors on a Big Stage

Cain hasn't demonstrated that he knows anything about international affairs so it's definitely going to be interesting to see what happens in the foreign policy debate on the 15th.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/think-tanked/post/gop-debate-heritage-aei-and-cnn-to-host-foreign-policy-debate/2011/10/18/gIQAKC36tL_blog.html

In my opinion it's an area where almost NONE of these guys are strong in (except for Huntsman) so it should be an open playing field more or less. Perry and Romney will try to claim FP experience but who are they kidding?

 

BENJAMINFRANKLIN

12:10 AM ET

October 27, 2011

John (Yosemite Sam) Bolton

Bolton as a favorite is ominous. Bolton is a very aggressive interventionist, with a short fuse and a very strong desire to dominate, bully and boast. Bolton not only has a mustache like Yosemite Sam, but a personality to match.

 

DOMINICANDREWS

7:16 AM ET

October 27, 2011

Opinion

I am surprised by the way things are heading, I wasn't expecting such statement from Herman! Were you? Clean House

 

DANIEL JACKSON

2:12 PM ET

October 27, 2011

What can we do?

I agree that your point is right and I am sure that everybody else thinks the same, because this is the logical way of thinking, but what can be done? Moving

 

PROGNOSYS

2:24 PM ET

December 2, 2011

next move anyone?

Totally agree - it is completely absurd! So moving forward what is going to be done about it? Cain has no idea how to deal with anything outside his state, let alone the rest of the world! Our children could do a better job from their playhouses!

 

Daniel W. Drezner is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

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