Hey, Lindsey Graham’s supposed to be the tough-on-terrorism candidate, people! That’s (kind of) why he’s running! (Or thinking about it, anyway.)
And yet, all these out-of-staters came to SC and had a contest seeing who could talk the toughest over the weekend. I wasn’t there, but The Washington Post wrote about it in a piece headlined, “South Carolina was the center of the GOP presidential universe this weekend. Here are the five biggest takeaways.” An excerpt:
Who is running as the most aggressive foreign policy hawk? Pretty much everyone.
The dominant theme of the summit was national security and combating terrorism, which made sense in a military-centric state such as South Carolina. The rhetoric was especially sharp — even for a conservative confab — and appears to be intensifying, a sign that the candidates desperately want to be seen as the tough enforcer in the field. Many of the candidates hold similar views on matters such as Iran, the Islamic State militant group and preventing domestic acts of terrorism. That’s probably why they tried to use memorable lines to leave an impression. Sen. Marco Rubio quoted from the movie “Taken.” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal joked that gun control means “hitting your target.” Sen. Ted Cruz said an officer who killed two gunmen who were probably inspired by the Islamic State helped them “meet their virgins.”
Oh, and if you’re wondering what it meant about Rubio’s “Taken” line, check his Tweet:
Marco on radical jihadists. pic.twitter.com/w16zXHZxco
— Team Marco (@TeamMarco) May 9, 2015
And what did Graham himself say? Well, he wasn’t there. Nor was Rand Paul, Chris Christie or Jeb Bush.
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Some of these candidates probably aren’t all that sold on the idea that we need to go all in on this military jingoism but they need to check that box on their GOP job application. It’s pretty much a given that the Republican candidate will be the hawk candidate and Hillary the dove candidate. But once in office that could change. Wilson won re-election by promoting his “He kept us out of war” slogan. A month after his inauguration he was asking for a declaration of war. Goldwater was the hawk in ’64 yet it was Johnson who sent 500k troops to the other side of the world. Reagan was the super hawk in his campaigns and even well into his presidency but then changed course and showed surprising constraint in his dealings with Gorbechev. That’s a part of his legacy that most conservatives have forgotten. Finally, Obama was regarded as a super dove in 2008 yet he is not shy about using drones and throwing more soldiers back into Iraq.
Bottom line, we shouldn’t put a huge amount of stock in what these folks say on the stump. Events often have a funny way of trumping campaign slogans.
Brad, with this news item I rest my case on my earlier statements that Graham brings absolutely nothing new to the GOP discussion of foreign policy in terms of a Presidential run. Of course, since some of these candidates are governors who until recently had not staked out official positions on world affairs, I’ll grant that Lindsey has been wrong for far longer than these clowns have. But they’re working hard to catch up.