Memo To The GOP 2016 Field: Speak Out When The President Won’t, Especially On ISIS And Iran

[Valin]

Hugh Hewitt Blog:

 

 

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All of the GOPers –John Bolton, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, John Kasich, George Pataki, Rand Paul, Mike Pence, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, Rick Snyder, Scott Walker and whomever else there is– should respond to events like yesterday’s horror with an immediate though of course considered statement and then be available to the media to talk about national security issues. I have looked for any such statements this morning from anyone in the GOP field and found none, which seems to me to telegraph timidity by the field, collectively afraid of repeating the perceived mistake of the Mitt Romney press conference on the morning after the Benghazi murders. Of course Romney was right at the time and proven right by the subsequent Benghazi investigations, but the Beltway Obama-Clinton protectorate of MSMers pushed back hard at Romney on 9/12/12 and this new field seems to have absorbed that lesson of not reacting to terrible events abroad for fear of being accused of partisanship. President Obama is the most partisan and secretive of presidents, and is embarked on genuinely dangerous foreign policy adventures, and needs to be called out by the people who would succeed him. That isn’t partisan posturing. That’s defining leadership.

 

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That is the simple message: Denunciation of the president’s policies vis-a-vis both ISIS and Iran, a call for new and realistic defense spending, a rebuilt fleet and Marine Corps, and a promise to a return to peace through strength and the use of force where necessary, in concert with our allies when possible, allies that include our strongest ally on the planet, Israel.

 

Every time a crisis erupts. In every speech that touches on foreign policy. The Republicans have to establish that they will halt and reverse the Obama-Clinton “lead from behind” disastrous policy that has led to defeats in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Ukraine as well as to near-constant confrontation in the South China Sea.

 

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