Speaking during the buildup to the big nothing-burger that was President Obama’s nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night, erstwhile presidential candidate and self-styled foreign-policy guru Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) had an impassioned response to Republicans’ recent revival of the Reagan Metric.
I don’t really know what to say, except… Oof.
In this campaign, we have a fundamental choice. Will we protect our country and our allies, advance our interests and ideals, do battle where we must and make peace where we can? Or will we entrust our place in the world to someone who just hasn’t learned the lessons of the last decade?
We’ve all learned Mitt Romney doesn’t know much about foreign policy. But he has all these ‘‘neocon advisors’’ who know all the wrong things about foreign policy. He would rely on them – after all, he’s the great outsourcer.
But I say to you: This is not the time to outsource the job of commander in chief. …
…He promised to focus like a laser on al – Qaeda – and he has – our forces have eliminated more of its leadership in the last three years than in all the eight years that came before. And after more than ten years without justice for thousands of Americans murdered on 9/11, after Mitt Romney said it would be ‘‘naive’’ to go into Pakistan to pursue the terrorists, it took President Obama, against the advice of many, to give that order to finally rid this earth of Osama bin Laden. Ask Osama bin Laden if he is better off now than he was four years ago.
Tying together “outsourcing” and foreign-policy advisers? Really? That doesn’t feel like maybe just a little bit of a stretch to you? Because goodness knows that no president ever employs experts in their various fields for the specific purpose of advising them. And I gotta’ say, pointing to a lack of foreign-policy experience on the Romney/Ryan ticket is kind of a bold strategy — lest people look back and recall how much foreign-policy experience Barack Obama had acquired by the time he ran for president. Which was precisely none.
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