Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton Isn't Impressed By Sarah Palin

Card carrying conservative John Bolton, who is considering running against President Obama in 2012, doesn't know enough about Sarah Palin's foreign policy views to comment on whether she's comparable to Obama on foreign policy issues, but says, "the Republican field is filled with people who would be better than Obama on foreign policy."

From The National Review Online's The Corner, which quotes Bolton:

“There will be at least one debate entirely on foreign and national-security policy,” Bolton says. “Let’s face it, Obama gives a good speech. After four years of practicing, he’ll almost look like a commander-in-chief. So if the Republican nominee isn’t capable of going toe-to-toe with him, we’re going to come away second-best on an issue where we should absolutely have people’s attention.”

Does Bolton see Sarah Palin as a strong potential nominee? “I don’t know enough about her views on foreign policy to comment, but the Republican field is filled with people who would be better than Obama on foreign policy,” he says.

“We have to acknowledge that Obama goes into the 2012 campaign with a huge advantage, having been commander-in-chief,” Bolton says. “He will have the pictures from, for example, his most recent visit to Afghanistan. He will be able to talk the talk. What we need is a candidate who can show that despite the glitz and the glamour, he has not walked the walk. That is the key.”

I would be remiss if I didn't remind readers that during the Obama/McCain foreign policy debate in 2008 it was Obama, not McCain, who came across as commander-in-chief. So, with four years experience in the job, it's hard to imagine Republicans trying to claim in 2012 that he hasn't "walked the walk."

On defense spending, Bolton is opposed to cuts, apparently unaware that the U.S. military is second to none and vastly superior to any other military organization on the planet:

How would a Bolton administration handle the defense budget? “There is no excuse for waste, fraud, and abuse in the Defense Department budget,” he says. “The next Republican administration ought to make waste, fraud, and abuse there just as much a priority as elsewhere in the federal government. But it is fundamentally wrong to say that a dollar well spent on defense is no different than a dollar well spent in the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, or something else. [Defense] is absolutely critical to holding the ring, to protecting America from external threats so that we can do what we need to do in terms of the domestic economy. Calls for across-the-board budget cuts, including the defense department, are badly misguided.”

Perhaps rather than spending profligately on ever-newer, ever-more-expensive weapons systems, just because we can, this or the next President ought to set a new course for Defense: Have them go to work figuring out how to fight low-tech wars against small, loosely organized terrorist organizations. Bolton's is the position that other Republicans will adopt, but their position doesn't afford them an advantage, considering that President Obama hasn't cut the defense budget. And, President Obama is just as interested as Republicans, if not more so, in cutting out waste, fraud and abuse in defense spending.

So, we have John Bolton, who reads and has the capacity to think about these things, unable to come up with a reason to replace President Obama. That puts Sarah Palin's unthinking rants into perspective, doesn't it?