I am going to go through what Cain said line-by-line:
Interviewer: "Do you agree with President Obama on Libya or not?"
This is a simple, basic foreign policy question.
Cain: "OK, Libya" [Takes moment to collect his thoughts]
Cain: "President Obama...supported...the uprising, correct? President Obama called for the removal of...Gaddafi?"
While I'm willing to accept that everyone has mental lapses occasionally, it is disturbing that a serious candiate for the Presidency is struggling with such a basic and well known fact about US foreign policy under Obama. He should have this stuff down cold, considering we've had an ongoing national debate on the subject for months now.
Cain: "Just wanted to make sure we're talking about the same thing before I say 'Yes I did agree' or 'No I didn't agree'."
Seriously, what else could the interviewer be asking about. Cain is obviously stalling for time.
Cain: "Um...I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reasons."
And if Cain can recover here and give a coherent answer on a basic foreign policy question, this is a non-story.
Cain: "Um...No, that's a different one."
And so we see that Cain has prepared canned answers to different foreign policy questions. To me, this is appalling for numerous reasons. First of all, it means that he doesn't have the ability to intelligently discuss basic foreign policy questions. Secondly, he cannot even keep his canned answers for different foreign policy questions straight. Seriously, how is this excusable.
Cain: "Uhh...got all this stuff twirling around in my head."
An interview on foreign policy is not a high school geography exam where you just need to remember the correct answer. It is a chance to discuss and explain your views on highly complex situations that you will have to deal with if you become president. Furthermore, as president, one must be able to explain to the American public why our nation makes certain decisions on foreign policy. And also, that answer just sounds stupid.
Now, Cain goes on to recover a little and answers that he cannot say what he would have done because he didn't know all of the information that Obama knew with regard to Libya and couldn't say what decision he would have made. This is a very good answer, in my opinion, but his struggles to remember what the Libya conflict is, in my opinion, suggests that his knowledge of foreign policy is all learned recently and lacks depth. This suggests a serious lack of readiness to be our commander in chief.
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