“Are you trying to say I’m dumb? Are you mocking me here, Pete?” This was Senator Amy Klobuchar’s retort to former Mayor Pete Buttigieg needling her in the most recent Democratic debate over having forgotten the name of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in an interview with Spanish-language TV news network Telemundo.
As Senator Elizabeth Warren defended Senator Klobuchar, who protested that she had simply temporarily forgotten the President’s name, former Vice President Joe Biden took it upon himself to remind voters that he was the only Democratic candidate on stage who had actually met with President López Obrador.
Forgetting the name of the leader of a nation which both borders the United States and is a major U.S. trade partner is a bad look, but one that is attributable to a momentary lapse in memory, and which isn’t necessarily representative of a presidential candidate’s (lack of) foreign policy proficiency. It is disheartening, however, that Senator Klobuchar’s forgetfulness has been the most talked about foreign policy issue in the Democratic presidential primary in months.
Among the many disasters of the current White House administration, foreign policy sticks out as a particular area where President Donald Trump has likely caused lasting damage to the republic.
News article after news article has shed light on a crisis at the State Department, where veteran diplomats and other career employees have departed the agency en masse, and those who remain report that morale has collapsed as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has lost the faith of his foreign service officers.
The turmoil within the Truman Building and the overall incompetence of the Trump administration have resulted in very real failures of U.S. foreign policy, which have endangered Americans and our allies. From the poorly planned strike on Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani, to the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, to our trade war with China, to the President’s attempt to exploit Ukraine’s government for political gain, for which Trump was impeached, this administration’s foreign policy has been one act of misfeasance after another.
Clearly, Democratic presidential candidates have no shortage of material with which to go after their Republican opponent. Because foreign policy is largely within the purview of the executive branch, as the President is able to appoint diplomats, command the military, and negotiate treaties, it is also an area in which a Democratic President could begin to repair the damage of the Trump administration even if faced with a GOP-controlled Congress. Yet, foreign policy is simply rarely on the agenda.
That’s not to say that candidates aren’t concerned with issues of international importance. In fact, Senator Warren has published a lengthy plan to rebuild the State Department and another detailing her quasi-protectionist approach to trade policy. Vice President Biden, whose record on foreign policy is extensive, has likewise laid out his positions. And in a 2019 speech, Mayor Buttigieg, who served in the Navy Reserve, stressed his personal experience as the basis for his approach. Perhaps it’s this experience which has led to Mayor Buttigieg raising more in campaign contributions from State Department employees than any other Democratic candidate. Senator Klobuchar has also addressed the Council of Foreign Relations.
But the reason that none of these candidates stress foreign policy on the campaign trail is likely straightforward: voters just don’t care about it. Although national security ranks as a top issue to voters, foreign affairs generally don’t crack the top ten.
Because foreign policy so infrequently comes up in the national electoral dialogue, it’s crucial that candidates don’t sound unprepared on the rare occasion that it does. If they stumble, it’s unlikely that they’ll have an opportunity to repair their record. With Senator Klobuchar forgetting the name of a major trade partner’s leader, this advice might already be too late.
