Herman Cain on Foreign Policy: Just the Bullet Points

Herman Cain

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain is now leading in the polls, making headlines with his tax plan and media appearances. CBS’s latest poll has Cain leading in the primary with 25% of the vote over former frontrunner Mitt Romney’s 21%. Why? Largely because Herman Cain’s personal story, of someone who pulled himself up by his bootstraps to become a moderately successful owner of a pizzeria chain, resonates with people. He is funny and an exciting speaker who sticks well to his talking points during debates. His lack of political experience is an asset, given that public opinion of government is at a historic low.

It’s been a good run for Mr. Cain, but it’s time to stop pretending that he is a real presidential candidate.

This week, the Cain camp released this campaign video, which shows Cain’s chief of staff professing his belief in the dynamism of the campaign then staring into the camera while taking a drag of his cigarette as patriotic pump-up music blares in the background. Sorry D.A.R.E., I guess smoking is not only cool–but Presidential too.

Herman Cain
GOP Presidential Candidate Herman Cain | Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons

Cain is clearly a character. Why should that prevent anyone from taking his policies and leadership skills seriously? That’s a fair argument to make until you actually take a look at his policies and leadership skills. For a clear example of Cain’s weaknesses, look no further than his foreign policy.

On foreign policy, Herman Cain has issued little in the way of goals, practices, or ideology, devoting an entire five paragraphs to international affairs on his campaign website. Cain’s own words about his foreign policy: “I don’t need to know the details.” This is probably a good strategy given the incredible lack of depth on the subject he has shown in a number interviews and speeches.

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Cain seemed to argue that he did not need to know the names of world leaders.

“When they ask me ‘who’s the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan,’ I’m gonna say, ‘You know, I don’t know, do you know?…And then I’m going to say, ‘How’s that gonna create one job?’” 

If we’re in a position where someone needs to convince the President why he should engage in diplomacy and know the names of world leaders, we could be in trouble. It is one thing to be ignorant, but it is quite another to be proud of it.

Perhaps I’m being too critical. Maybe Cain’s joke about not knowing world leaders’ names reflects an ideological orientation towards isolationist foreign policy. After all, an isolationist wing seems to be gaining strength in the Republican party in response to President Obama’s intervention in Libya and the prolonged war in Afghanistan. Maybe Herman Cain does have a foreign policy ideology. However, in an interview with David Gregory on Meet the Press last Sunday, Cain said that he was “unfamiliar with the neo-conservative movement,” the ideological basis for the interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now I’m not arguing that every President should be an international relations theory scholar – but it might be helpful to know something about the most consequential foreign policy theory of this century.

Recently Cain has tried to make substantive claims about world affairs. For example at a fundraiser this week, Cain criticized the President’s recent decision to withdraw troops from Iraq, stating that it would create “huge power vacuum for Iran to go in and disrupt everything and undo everything that we’ve been trying to help them do on the last several years.” If that was an answer that I wrote on a test, the professor would write, “Why? Disrupt how? Undo what?” I award Mr. Cain no partial credit.

These are not gaffes, misstatements, or reflections of an actual ideology. They are answers that reflect Cain’s inexperience in foreign policy and an absolute lack of knowledge in an area where, if you buy Cain’s limited government argument, the President does actually have a good deal of power.

In the end, it’s highly unlikely that Cain will get the nomination. His folksy speak and catchy policy names may resonate temporarily with average conservatives, but they will not resonate with policy elites in Washington who will fund his campaign.

Cain clearly does not have the political chops to survive the onslaught of attacks by fellow candidates and the media that will surely increase in intensity if he continues to lead the polls. Sarah Palin is a great example of what happens when a candidate tries to deflect questions on foreign policy by claiming that domestic policy is all-important.

Above all else, Herman Cain’s popularity displays the lack of depth of Republican primary candidates. It is unfortunate that the two most qualified candidates, Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich, have as good a chance of winning the GOP nomination as Godfather’s Pizza has of producing an edible pizza. The GOP has had a tradition of priming well-respected and established nominees for the Presidency. Not anymore.

About Ian Moskowitz

Ian is a senior in CAS studying political science.

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One Comment on “Herman Cain on Foreign Policy: Just the Bullet Points”

  1. All political points are well presented and well taken. The pizza reference was a low blow: Godfather’s Pizza is the best slice we’ve ever had in Ellsworth, ME.

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