The bar is set pretty low when a candidate merely has to answer one simple question in hindsight better than the others to look like a foreign policy expert. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton was a skilled and competent Secretary of State whose knowledge and insight far eclipses all the GOP hopefuls, yet she is scrutinized at a level unparalleled when compared to the Clown Van (we've had to get a bigger vehicle as the field grows). It's nationally newsworthy when someone on the GOP side like Marco Rubio, who seems to be Uncle Sheldon's favored son at this point, speaks in a manner that sounds barely reasonable.
Fox "News"' Outnumbered devoted a whole segment to Stacy Dash effusively praising Trey Gowdy's tireless pursuit of 'non-troversial' evidence for BENGHAZI. On Fox, Hillary is treated as if she planned the attack herself. Meanwhile, Rubio answers one question without stumbling like a fool and he is a heralded member of the master class.
The Washington Times, in Marco Rubio Fires an Impressive Opening Shot, raves about the prowess of the Junior Florida Senator.
Marco Rubio got the same question (as Jeb Bush was asked by Megyn Kelly) this week when he spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, and later in an interview with Charlie Rose of NPR. He gave the question the short shrift it deserved: “Not only would I not have been in favor of it, President Bush would not have been in favor of it.” The best and the brightest live and learn.
Reuters, the British news agency, called Mr. Rubio’s sharp, crisp performance at the Council on Foreign Relations “a master class on foreign policy,” an hour with the imagined peerless in foreign policy in which he showed himself “to be a peer.”
In addition to not knowing the age of the earth, because he's an idiot, Rubio insists on sticking to foreign policy techniques favored in the Cold War. Despite popular support for reestablishing diplomacy with Cuba, Marco is vehemently opposed to changing decades-old, unpopular policy. In December, he said defiantly:
"I don't care if the polls show that 99 percent of people believe we should normalize relations in Cuba."
Popularity be damned, Rubio insists the United States remain the world's bully. He accuses President Obama of being usual GOP insults (feckless, weak, leading from behind) to the first black president. He's been especially critical of the Obama Administration's Iranian diplomacy. His criticism is often dead wrong.
The larger point, of course, is that Rubio continues to talk about foreign policy, positioning himself as an expert on international affairs in advance of his likely presidential campaign. But the more he addresses the issue, the more mistakes he makes.
It’s become a staple of Republican rhetoric – Obama “refused” to side with Iranian demonstrations when the Green Revolution needed American support – but it’s an overly simplistic mistake reflecting GOP confusion about the nuances of foreign policy.
When Rubio’s office was pressed for an explanation, the senator’s aide referred the Washington Post to this New York Times article, which quoted then-Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, defending Obama’s approach.
Scott Walker even claims that Rubio is great at foreign policy.
Wesley Pruden, editor emiritus of the Times, has nothing but mad respect for a man that has really accomplished very little and can take no credit for any foreign policy success.
God and guns loom large in Republican imaginations, and grits and gravy, like a little sugar, can make the medicine go down. But we live in an interconnected world full of evil men and deceitful women, and only the unwary write off foreign policy as dull and boring. This is Marco Rubio’s strength. He carries himself well.
He carries himself well when compared with the most stumbling drunk clown van ever assembled. He shares the same maniacal denial of climate change as the other GOP candidates.
"I don’t agree with the notion that some are putting out there, including scientists, that somehow, there are actions we can take today that would actually have an impact on what’s happening in our climate."
Senator Rubio embraces a denial that will affect his state the most when ocean levels rise. But he appears more capable than Ben, The Huckster and the rest of the poorly assembled GOP front runners and that's saying very little.
