×
As Brother Tom noted here, the presidential candidates spent yesterday, after news broke of the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, falling over themselves in an effort to show that they would know better than the current occupant of the White House how to deal with the troubled South Asian nation.The response of Republican candidates was predictable: the assassination was obviously the work of al Qaeda, showing why we need to fight all the harder against the purveyors of "terror". Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson said Bhutto's killing revealed a contest between "the forces of civilization and the forces of anarchy." Thompson concluded, "It's us against them." Arizona Sen. John McCain used the event to sell his experience in foreign policy, according to the Associated Press:
"My theme has been throughout this campaign that I'm the one with the experience, the knowledge and the judgment," [McCain said.] So perhaps it may serve to enhance those credentials to make people understand that I've been to Pakistan, I know Musharraf, I can pick up the phone and call him. I knew Benazir Bhutto."Tom yesterday gave us Rudy's rationale as to why the Bhutto assassination was about him, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee whined that McCain wasn't playing fair. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said spoke some wordy boilerplate about global jihadists, but looked handsome doing it -- a fact obscured to many by the glaze that coats their eyes when the candidate opens his mouth.--Adele M. Stan
