Christie’s Missing Foreign Policy
If Christie’s trip to Britain is supposed to bolster his foreign policy credentials, he is going about in a very strange way:
Asked about Prime Minister David Cameron’s austerity measures, Christie talked instead about his own spending cuts in New Jersey. Pressed on the role NATO should play in the world, he told MSNBC, “I’m not going to get into that now.” [bold mine-DL]
If Walker’s statements on foreign policy have so far been exceedingly vague or boilerplate, Christie has distinguished himself by having said almost nothing on any specific foreign policy issue in the last two years. What he has said has typically been alarmist and ridiculous, and he doesn’t seem interested in getting bogged down in talking about specific cases. He repeatedly avoids questions on issues that are relevant to the overseas trips he is taking, and often refuses to answer any questions that require him to show that he knows something about the wider world. Most other governors that take these foreign trips ahead of presidential campaigns at least try to pretend that they can speak on these matters, but it seems that Christie would rather remain silent and be thought ignorant rather than open his mouth and remove all doubt.
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