Monday, November 14, 2011

Months Before Total Confusion On Libya, Herman Cain Was Totally Sure Obama Was Wrong


By Alex Seitz-Wald and Jeff Spross/Think Progress

Former pizza executive Herman Cain has struggled with foreign policy throughout his campaign to be commander in chief, but never more so than an in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today in which he muddled through a flailing, nonsensical answer on Libya for five excruciating minutes. Ultimately, Cain lands on being generally supportive of the intervention, but says he perhaps would have a bit more cautious at the outset.
But this seems to contradict with his longstanding strident opposition to the Libyan expedition. “I’ve said many times before that US intervention in Lybia [sic] is inappropriate and wrong. The US does not belong in this war,” he wrote in a Twitter debate in July. That same month, he appeared on John Stossel’s show on Fox Business, where he clearly stated his opposition:
CAIN: Should we be in Libya? The answer is no.
STOSSEL: That’s clear.
CAIN: That’s because U.S. interest was not clearly defined.
It’s worth noting that Cain’s foreign policy slogan is “peace through strength and clarity.”
Watch the flip flop, along with a compilation of Cain’s less-than-clear foreign policy vision, produced by ThinkProgress’ Jeff Spross:
Unlike Rick Perry’s infamous “opps” moment, Cain doesn’t appear to have a momentary brain lapse, but seems to be genuinely befuddled by the substance of the question. Last month, Cain said he had studied up on foreign policy and “challenge[d] anybody who says I wouldn’t know how to address foreign policy.”
While becoming the next commander in chief is looking increasingly unlikely for Cain, he has a backup plan. This weekend, he said he would like to be secretary of defense so he could “kick the you-know-what out of everyone in the world.”

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