A proud tradition of ignorance

When George W was running for President the first time back in 2000, he was interviewed on the radio by a DJ who started quizzing him on Foreign Affairs 101: 'What's the name of the President of North Korea?, What's the name of the leader of Iran?' That kind of stuff. How did Georgie do?

Yeah.

So the reporter was excoriated, both by partisan Republicans and by other, so-called, journalists for having engaged in a sneak attack ambush. 'It wasn't fair to expect Bush to know this stuff' went the whining at the time 'he'd have people around him as President to know it for him.'

And we all know how well that worked.

So Mike Huckabee, who some think has a very real shot at the corroded brass ring of the Republican nomination, was just asked his opinion of the new NIE report stating that Iran hasn't had a functioning nuclear weapons program since 2003. His response boiled down to 'Huhh?'

As Crooks and Liars put it: imagine if one of the leading democrats had demonstrated this kind of cow-eyed ignorance about a foreign policy issue that had been front page news for days. It would have dominated the news cycle and been presented as part of the narrative that only Republicans are serious on security and foreign policy issues.

Expect the story of Huck's charming befuddlement to disappear without a trace.