{"id":13812,"date":"2007-12-05T09:10:22","date_gmt":"2007-12-05T14:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13812.html"},"modified":"2007-12-05T09:10:22","modified_gmt":"2007-12-05T14:10:22","slug":"huckabee-flubs-nie-test-badly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/huckabee-flubs-nie-test-badly\/","title":{"rendered":"Huckabee flubs NIE test badly"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week’s revelations from the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran have shaken policy circles around the world dramatically. It’s had a sweeping impact on politics, diplomacy, foreign policy, and national security, and news about Iran’s nuclear weapons program shutting down in 2003 has been everywhere.<\/p>\n

And yet, somehow, Mike Huckabee hasn’t the foggiest idea what it is<\/a>. From an Iowa event last night:<\/p>\n

Reporter: I don’t know to what extent you have been briefed or been able to take a look at the NIE report that came out yesterday …<\/p>\n

Huckabee: I’m sorry?<\/p>\n

Reporter: The NIE report, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Have you been briefed or been able to take a look at it —<\/p>\n

Huckabee: No.<\/p>\n

Reporter: Have you heard of the finding?<\/p>\n

Huckabee: No.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In October, David Brooks, in an otherwise fawning column about the former governor, conceded that “his foreign policy thinking is thin<\/a>.” That was obviously a dramatic understatement.<\/p>\n

Huckabee is running for president<\/i>. A huge development regarding a key foe and nuclear weapons is front-page news around the world, and Huckabee has no idea<\/i> what just happened?<\/p>\n

Wait, it gets worse.
\n
\nThe reporter, David Paul Kuhn, went ahead and summarized the NIE’s conclusions and asked Huckabee if it “adjusts your view on Iran in any sense.”<\/p>\n

Kuhn: What is your concern on Iran as of now?<\/p>\n

Huckabee: I’ve a serious concern if they were to be able to weaponize nuclear material, and I think we all should, mainly because the statements of Ahmadinejad are certainly not conducive to a peaceful purpose for his having it and the fear that he would in fact weaponize it and use it. (He pauses and thinks) I don’t know where the intelligence is coming from that says they have suspended the program or how credible that is versus the view that they actually are expanding it…. And I’ve heard, the last two weeks, supposed reports that they are accelerating it and it could be having a reactor in a much shorter period of time than originally been thought.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s be clear. Huckabee not only has no idea what the NIE said this week, he also has no idea what the NIE even is<\/i>. He’s running for president in a time of war but apparently understands the basics of the global landscape about as well as a child.<\/p>\n

How is this possible? I don’t agree with National Review’s Byron York often, but in this case, his take<\/a> on this was very much in line with mine.<\/p>\n

Beyond doing nothing to resolve doubts about his foreign policy qualifications, the exchange underscores the fact that Huckabee doesn’t really have much of a campaign, in the sense that Giuliani and Romney have campaigns, with teams of advisers and carefully-thought-out policy positions. In important ways, he has been flying by the seat of his pants, relying on his unequaled talents as a retail campaigner. But now that he is leading in Iowa, and moving up nationally as well, the deficiencies of his campaign might come more and more into the spotlight.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Agreed. Huckabee has been effectively flying under the radar, avoiding scrutiny because few perceived him as a credible candidate. He hasn’t assembled a group of top-notch policy advisors — who could walk him through the basics, such as how to read a newspaper — because a) he hasn’t had any money; b) all the best policy experts had already signed on with top-tier candidates; and c) he hasn’t needed good advisors, because no one has been asking him hard questions.<\/p>\n

And now Huckabee finds himself in an untenable position — he’s a serious challenger for the Republican nomination, and his understanding about U.S. foreign policy is about as sophisticated as a house plant.<\/p>\n

He’s yet another would-be emperor with no clothes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s revelations from the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran have shaken policy circles around the world dramatically. It’s had a sweeping impact on politics, diplomacy, foreign policy, and national security, and news about Iran’s nuclear weapons program shutting down in 2003 has been everywhere. And yet, somehow, Mike Huckabee hasn’t the foggiest idea what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}