McCain hits 'isolationist' field

Via Playbook, John McCain raps the Republican presidential field for what he sees as an isolationist strain that's emerging as the candidates shift away from strict hawkishness on foreign policy, and which cropped up at the New Hampshire debate last Monday.

From the pre-taped interview with "This Week:"

Advertisement McCAIN: “Well, I was more concerned about what the candidates in New Hampshire the other night said. This is isolationism. There's always been an … isolation strain on the Republican Party — that Pat Buchanan wing of our party. But now it seems to have moved more center stage, so to speak. … If we had not intervened, Gadhafi was at the gates of Benghazi. He said he was going to go house to house to kill everybody. That's a city of 700,000 people. What would be saying now if we had allowed for that to happen?” AMANPOUR: “Well, you were one of the key supports. And what you're talking is all the Republicans on the stage of that debate on Monday seeming to waver from what's a traditional Republican position on national security.” McCAIN: “Yes, I wonder what Ronald Reagan would be saying today.” AMANPOUR: “What would he be saying today? If he heard, for instance, Michele Bachmann or Mitt Romney?” McCAIN: “He would be saying: That's not the Republican Party of the 20th century, and now the 21st Century. That is not the Republican Party that has been willing to stand up for freedom for people for all over the world, whether it be in Grenada — that Ronald Reagan had a quick operation about — or whether it be in our enduring commitment to countering the Soviet Union.”

The shift away from positions calling for military engagement - most clearly articulated by Jon Huntsman so far among the current candidates, with his call for a clear troop drawn-down from Afghanistan - would have been unimaginable four years ago when McCain was the nominee. It reflects, at minimum, a weariness among the electorate at large with the drawn-out wars in the Mideast.

Still, having McCain be vocal about the militarism of his party's candidate could prove problematic for the eventual nominee.

This article tagged under: John McCain