VSP WATCH….The Washington Post has compiled a list of all the foreign policy advisors to the major presidential candidates. Matt Yglesias comments:
On the Republican side, John McCain’s list probably contains the greatest quantity of frightening crazy people. Rudy Giuliani’s list, on the other hand, is completely untempered with the inclusion of any big-name non-crazy people, whereas McCain at least leavens the Kagan/Kristol/Woolsey axis with some Armitage/Eagleburger/ Scowcroft counterweights. Basically, if McCain becomes president, we’re probably doomed, but if Giuliani becomes president we’re definitely doomed.
Quite so. Of course, what would be more genuinely useful is a list of the people who actually have each candidate’s ear on foreign policy, not a telephone book of every single foreign policy wonk who’s made an endorsement. I want to know which ones are figureheads and which ones are likely to have West Wing offices in 2009.
On a related note, remember Sally Field’s cri de coeur at the Emmy Awards that “If mothers ruled the world, there would be no god-damned wars in the first place”? There’s not really much reason for thinking she’s right, but maybe we ought to give it a shot. Out of 148 names in the Post’s list, a grand total of seven are women. Maybe it’s time to tamp down the testosterone level among our foreign policy elite?
