tao, access to “briefings” does not make a senator an expert in intelligence or analysis, as a survey of the present majority on a number of House and Senate committees demonstrates better than words can convey. Bernie (who was my congressman and is now my junior senator) has never concerned himself very much with even the very general background security briefings provided to all senators, which you seem to think are so valuable but are little more than a courtesy. Secretary Clinton, by contrast, sat on two committees central to foreign-policy considerations, and then was Secretary of State for four years. Note also that President Obama could have nominated anyone he wanted to Secretary of State: he chose Hillary because of her high intelligence, rigorous work ethic, and fundamental compatibility (not identity, just compatibility) of views.
Carlos, Bernie is an OK guy and an effective senator for my beloved State of Vermont, but he will not get my primary vote against Secretary Clinton. He just doesn’t measure up in several areas where Hillary excels. And while some presidents have grown into excellent commanders-in-chief despite a lack of direct experience prior to coming into office, that’s not the way to bet.
President Obama said recently that Secretary Clinton would be “ready to go to work on Day One”. On Day One Bernie Sanders would be ready to wage war on our banking system and the One Percent. Hillary Clinton learned foreign policy from many sources, and Secretaries of State from both parties have consulted Dr Kissinger for decades. Notwithstanding legitimate and serious concerns about some things he has said and done in a very long career, he still knows a hell of a lot. A president getting all his background from one source, or a narrow, ideologically-aligned group of sources, has a recent precedent: George W Bush, who makes just about every historian’s list of the worst five presidents in US history.
Presidents need to cast their nets wide, sift through what they learn, and find their own way by their own lights. I trust Hillary’s judgment on foreign policy over Bernie’s any day, and in just about every other area as well, with the possible exception of knowing how to get naive young people stirred up about issues they genuinely care about but don’t really understand. And North Korea, while a serious nuisance and a festering problem inherited from the Bush administration, is not an existential threat to the United States. Neither is ISIS. Thinking that either of them is an existential threat demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about how the world works. Russia is the existential threat. Russia is where the largest single slice of a president’s foreign-policy and defense attention needs to be directed.
State is the top Cabinet portfolio, above Defense and Treasury, and not by accident. President Obama provided Hillary the best possible preparation (in addition to her already deep and broad knowledge of economic and social policy) for the Oval Office, and she did an excellent job at it. If she is the Dem candidate and defeats the GOP candidate, maybe she’ll offer Bernie the Veterans Affairs portfolio: that seems to have been an obsessive interest of his for some time now. Maybe he could do well there. However I expect to be voting for him for senator again next time around. Either that, or he’ll retire at the end of his present term.
