Bhutto's death and U.S. Presidential Candidates

This morning's Washington Post has a great editorial about the undeniable fact that Benazir Bhutto's assassination, tragic in itself, presented the '08 presidential candidates with a test: Faced with a genuine crisis in foreign policy, could they cogently and clearly. The Post gives the highest mark to John Edwards (D-NC), saying he passed with flying colors: Managing to get Pres. Pervez Musharraf on on the phone Thursday (quite a feat for a one-term senator not well known on the global stage) and to deliver a strong message: continue on the path back to a democracy (unlike Bush, Edwards isn't stupid enough to think Pakistan currently has a democracy!) and allow international investigators to investigate Ms. Bhutto's death. (If they clear Musharraf's admin., they will have far more credibility than if Musharraf handles things "in house.")

The Post also gave high marks on this test to Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and John McCain (R-AZ). (They failed to mention that Clinton echoed Edwards' call for international investigators by the end of Friday--without mentioning that this idea wasn't original with her.) The post didn't mention "2nd tier" candidates Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Joe Biden (D-DE), both of whom have decades of foreign policy experience, both of whom have warned for years that Pakistan was farmore dangerous and unstable than Iran, and who gave great responses to the crisis.

The Post rightly flunks fmr. Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) who didn't know that Musharraf had lifted martial law 2 weeks ago and who then thought that we ought to guard our borders against a flood of Pakistani refugees. (AIEE--Help! More brown people with a strange religion are coming! OH, NO!!) Also, Huckabee thought that Afghanistan was on the Eastern border with Pakistan (no, Mike, that's India!) and not the Western border! Sheesh! I hope all Americans agree that 8 years with a president who is abysmally ignorant of world affairs (or even geography!!) is enough!

Giuliani and Romney merely saw the assassination as confirming their view that we aren't fighting terrorism in all its form, but Muslims and "jihadists." But the Post reserved its worst grade for Obama's attempt to link Bhutto's assassination with Hillary Clinton's vote to authorize the war/occupation of Iraq. It was a very weird response and, I have to say, has shaken some of my enthusiasm for Obama, though I still prefer him to Hillary. Maybe if he became John Edwards' VP, he would gain enough foreign policy experience for the White House--or maybe he has it now and just didn't realize that a crisis is NOT simply another opportunity for a low blow in a campaign--and this, from someone who wants a kinder, gentler politics, too!