{"id":12531,"date":"2012-01-04T14:54:32","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T19:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=12531"},"modified":"2012-01-04T14:54:32","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T19:54:32","slug":"gop-debates-should-put-foreign-policy-front-and-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/12531\/gop-debates-should-put-foreign-policy-front-and-center\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Debates Should Put Foreign Policy Front-and-Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quin brings up a fun topic about imagining possible vice presidential nominees<\/a>, but it\u2019s too early to speculate on who a current candidate should choose because it\u2019s too early to know what each candidate needs in a VP selection.<\/p>\n

Ordinarily, Veeps compensate for some perceived deficiency in the top of the ticket.\u00a0 As a former Defense Secretary and congressman, Dick Cheney was the old Washington pro who could help Texas Governor George W. Bush avoid rookie mistakes.\u00a0 Ronald Reagan picked the elder George Bush to placate the GOP establishment and unite the party\u2019s money with its grassroots.\u00a0 Bush later picked Dan Quayle to create a bridge to a younger generation.\u00a0 Robert Dole and John McCain were grizzled senators who needed a jolt of enthusiasm to energize their campaigns \u2013 enter Jack Kemp and Sarah Palin.\u00a0 In each case, the presidential nominee chose someone who clearly compensated for a perceived deficiency in his electoral popularity.\u00a0 (Of course, you can judge how well these picks worked out by consulting the relevant year\u2019s election returns.)<\/p>\n

Tellingly, none of these Republican presidential nominees except George W. Bush picked a vice president as a surrogate for foreign policy.<\/p>\n

So far, campaign 2012 has centered on jobs and the economy, as well it should.\u00a0 Historically high unemployment and a liberal administration promising more taxes and spending cries out for an articulate defender of limited government and broad-based economic growth.\u00a0 But domestic politics are only half the equation.\u00a0 As every President learns, foreign policy is the real distinctive of the job.\u00a0 It\u2019s very likely that within the next month or two a major foreign policy crisis will remind GOP voters that they need a nominee who gets the free market and<\/em> understands America\u2019s need to maintain its place in the world as the only remaining superpower.<\/p>\n

There are two Republican debates scheduled in New Hampshire<\/a> before the state\u2019s primary next Tuesday.\u00a0 At least one should be devoted to foreign policy.\u00a0 Conservatives \u2013 and the country \u2013 deserve to know who\u2019s strong on foreign policy, and who needs to compensate with a strong vice presidential pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quin brings up a fun topic about imagining possible vice presidential nominees, but it\u2019s too early to speculate on who a current candidate should choose because it\u2019s too early to know what each candidate needs in a VP selection. Ordinarily, Veeps compensate for some perceived deficiency in the top of the ticket.\u00a0 As a former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2033,1193,1972,216,2705],"class_list":["post-12531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-2033","tag-campaign","tag-debate","tag-foreign-policy","tag-new-hampshire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12531"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12534,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12531\/revisions\/12534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}