Bernie Sanders does need to improve his ability to discuss foreign policy issues

[Bread and Circus]

In all fairness I think Bernie Sanders edged Clinton out in the debate last night but I think she did come across as more comfortable and more knowledgeable in terms of foreign policy issues.

Granted, I stand behind Sanders 100% when it comes to the fact that we need to be less interventionist and pull back from being the world's "police force".

I also think Clinton is a militarist and I think she is going to escalate our involvement in troubles around the world in ways that will be bad for us in both the short and long term.

However, Clinton sounded smoother, more polished, more comfortable, and more knowledgeable about foreign policy affairs than Sanders.

If I were one of Sander's advisers I would say he needs to really improve his ability to debate and speak on these matters. He has the right wisdom on the matter, better than Clinton in my opinion, but he comes of as scattered and ragged sometimes.

I think his paradigm of less intervention in the world would be good but right now I don't think he is selling it.

I also think Russia is more of a problem than North Korea so I was surprised he made such a focus on North Korea (which probably can do only what China allows it to do).

[kennetha]

1. She's more knowledgeable on EVERYTHING

She is a policy wonk, she studies it, absorbs it, thinks it up, cannibalizes from here and there, seems to read everything she can get her hands on, consults widely. Sanders can't hold a candle to her in that regard. He's a johnny one-note. He's been saying the same things since he first came into public life, pushing the exact same ideas, with almost no alteration. He's just found a receptive ear, because of current circumstances, for his one note. He has evolved not at all.

[HooptieWagon]

2. And yet her judgement remains poor.

Last edited Fri Feb 5, 2016, 10:58 AM - Edit history (2)

You would think she would have learned the lessons in Iraq after her war vote. But she repeated beating war drums in Libya and Syria...look how fucked up they are now. Then there was her backing the coup in Honduras, overthrowing a democraticly elected government, which led to thousands of Honduran refugees fleeing the violence.
Clinton's foreign policy 'experience' is a record of failure. And the only two 'scandals' of the Obama Administration, Bengazi and Emails, are directly attributable to her.

And 'reads everything'? She couldn't be bothered to read the NIE report that countered BushCos claim that Iraq was a threat. No, she didn't read it. Most important vote a Senator could take, to go to war, and she couldn't be bothered to do her homework.

[kennetha]

5. Ask Obama about her judgment.

I'll trust his assessment over yours any day of the week.

But in a candid 40-minute interview for POLITICO’s Off Message podcast as the first flakes of the blizzard fell outside the Oval Office, he couldn’t hide his obvious affection for Clinton or his implicit feeling that she, not Sanders, best understands the unpalatably pragmatic demands of a presidency he likens to the world’s most challenging walk-and-chew-gum exercise.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/obama-iowa-2016-sanders-off-message-218166#ixzz3zIsooX66

[HooptieWagon]

10. Obama was quick to replace her with a competent Kerry.

However, they're still cleaning up the messes Clinton left behind.
Clinton reached her peak of abilities as a corporate lawyer suing ACORN on behalf of Arkansas utilities. After that has been upward failure.

[frylock]

21. Lets ask the guy who chose Tim Geithner to be Secretary of the Treasury.

[JRLeft]

3. Not on economics, she comes across as a Republican on economics.

On foreign policy, she has more chops, but she's a disaster on foreign policy.

[kennetha]

4. that's silly

Supply side, trickle down economics, tax cuts for the rich always/ You think Hilary is for that? Seriously?

[JRLeft]

19. Pro corporate policies, yeah she is. Like all Third Wayers.

[redstateblues]

9. That's an ignorant statement. You obviously

Don't know what you are talking about. She was ranked as one of the most liberal Senators when she was in Congress. She might not be as far left as you prefer but that smear is just BS

[HooptieWagon]

11. Yes, she's 11th most liberal Senator

Which is more of an indictment of the U.S. Senate than a credit to her.
Why settle for anything less than #1 liberal Senator, Bernie Sanders?

[m-lekktor]

12. yep. shows how far to the right the Senate is if that is her ranking! nt

[HooptieWagon]

15. Yep, pretty easy to rank #11 when Lieberman, etc, are included.

Sanders was founder of House Progressive Caucus, the largest caucus aside from the two party caucuses. He remains a member, as a Senator, because there is no Senate Progressive Caucus. He's the only progressive in the Senate. So Clinton's #11 rating includes 9 non-progressive Senators ahead of her.

[cali]

13. Lol. You are very difficult to take seriously.

[KingCharlemagne]

14. Too bad she has the blood of 1,000,000+ INNOCENT IRAQIS dripping

from her hands.

She was faced with the most momentous foreign-policy question in the past 50 years and . . . she got it wrong. Sanders got it right.

Disqualifies her from POTUS

[HooptieWagon]

16. She didn't just get it wrong...

She got it disasterously wrong...and advocated her war-mongering in a Senate speech.

[kennetha]

17. Tell that to Barack Obama

Oh, I forgot, I should trust you more than him.

[KingCharlemagne]

18. Deflect, deflect, deflect. You tout Hillary's foreign-policy chops, I counter with

her abject and total failure on the most important foreign-policy issue of the last 50 years and you respond with . . . Barack Obama?

Whatevs. Putting you on Ignore until after the GE.

[TCJ70]

6. From a Sanders supporter, agreed...

...it's the only area of the debate he didn't do well in last night.

[firebrand80]

7. This would be a serious problem in the GE

The GOP candidate is going to be throwing a lot of good sounding, but ultimately nonsense stuff at the wall. We need someone that's able to explain why what they're saying is B.S. I don't see Bernie as being able to do that.

[tech3149]

8. When it comes to foreign policy, no top tier politico gets it right

We've had a domineering, paranoid foreign policy since 1944. Perhaps if we started dealing with the rest of the world as equals we might not have the need for a bloated military.
I don't think there's been a day of my 60 odd years that our military hasn't been engaged in some altercation somewhere.

[EndElectoral]

20. Bernie's Foreign Policy is closer to George Washington than Kissinger

Washington spoke of the dangers of foreign entanglements in his Farewell to Office. He was reluctant to assist even France who helped us in the American Revolution.

Washington's point is similar to Bernies. We are not the world's policeman. We must use extreme caution in becoming embroiled in conflicts that are better solved regionally. That the shedding of American blood on foreign soil is a last resort and that saber rattling is not the path to peace. That one needs to talk with our adversaries and not just our friends. That stubbornly clinging to conditions doesn't make the world a more peaceful place, and one must weigh each situation as it comes.

I beleive he is much, much better suited to deal with foreign policy than Clinton. Clinton's selling point is "experience" and she even invoked a job reference from Henry Kissinger last night of all people. Frankly, when one measures Clinton's foreign policy accomplishments and failures, the failures outweigh the successes - from Iraq, to the Ukraine, to Libya, to Honduras, as well as arms trades via the Foundation, and accepting monies from Ukrainian oligarchs, and her poor judgment on the email issue, it indicates a few things.

1. She tends to dig in and support military options as solutions.
2. One feels she gives talking points to "diplomacy", but ONLY if rigorous conditions are met by the other side preferring more to saber rattle and antagonize.
3. There have been funding questions regarding weapons sales and accepted contributions.
4. Her IWR vote was without question a blunder and a reflection of acqueiscing rather than that of leadership.
5. There will always be a suspicious tie to corporations who may benefit from her foreign policy decisions and a utilateral support of hard liners in Israel rather than a measured solution to the Palestinian situation. For example what "conditions" has she imposed on Israel in regards to the expansion of West Bank settlements toward a Middle East Peace.. Would love to hear that question asked of her in a debate.

Foreign policy experience does not predicate good foreign policy judgment. And no matter how many Kissinger endorsements she touts, as Bernie said experience can't replace good judgment..