Will 2016 really be a foreign policy election?

There are plenty of other measures showing that, despite an improving employment situation — and even that is not as good as the 5.5 percent unemployment figure would suggest — Americans are still in a tough place economically.

Given that, how can 2016 be a foreign policy election? Barring some Sept. 11-level catastrophe, how can foreign policy dominate a campaign when the incomes of 80 percent of Americans are going down, even during a so-called economic recovery?

Of course candidates will have to craft strong and consistent national security policy platforms. But there haven’t been that many true foreign policy elections in recent decades — 1980 and 2004 are the only real examples.

And if the foreign policy election of the pundits’ vision does not materialize, the winner in 2016 will be the candidate who best addresses the concerns of Americans who are still seeing their standard of living go down.