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On MSNBC’s Morning Joe program this morning, Gov. Gary Johnson was caught off guard with a single question. A mistake that has made him the most talked about candidate of the day. Not in a good way. The question was “what would you do about Aleppo?”
He was stumped.
Now he didn’t BS his way through it, or make something up like we have seen from Trump when asked about things of which he had no clue. Johnson just responded that he didn’t know what that was. That was it, the attacks began the national press that has been so lenient to every other faux pas and misstep in this election suddenly decided to focus on something. Not of the two major candidates, who each have issues that need to be talked about. No not Trump or Clinton, but Gary Johnson who is polling at less than 15% and currently not even allowed on the debate stage.
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Then Facebook and Twitter got in on the mix. Suddenly everyone knew what Aleppo was and why it mattered. Coincidently the top searched term on Google currently is Aleppo, but apparently Gary Johnson was the only one who didn’t know what it was. Granted a presidential candidate should know, I don’t discredit that.
My whole problem with this debate is pretty simple. Until this morning, nobody really gave a shit about Aleppo or the people dying there. Not the candidates, not the press and most importantly not the American electorate. The only thing we have focused on the last several months about Syria is the fact we don’t want their refugees here. However suddenly today, Aleppo matters and the pain and suffering of its people matters.
Give me a break.
I don’t think it matters who you support in this election, the fact that we have become so calloused to war and suffering speaks volumes to where we are as a nation. We have been in a perpetual state of war for literal decades now. Our foreign policy matters, leadership matters, public opinion, elections, and voting all matters. What we don’t realize is how much it matters to people in places like Aleppo.
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So while you’re hammering Gary Johnson about not immediately knowing what Aleppo was, ask yourself two questions. Did Aleppo matter to you before today? Will it matter to you after November?
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Photo:Getty Images
I don’t care about Aleppo. ISIS was dove the moment Russia and their allies got in. Oh, Obama will take the credit for it while blaming Russia for the civilian deaths. It was the Iranian and Syrian armies / militias and the Russian bomb everybody regardless of collateral damage that defeated ISIS. I’m more concerned with post-ISIS (as an occupying force. They’re still a terrorism threat.). You have a resurgent Assad and Iran and the Shia in Iraq are more likely to throw their lot in with them than us. Iran will probably get nuclear weapons because it makes a… Read more »
Sorry, but I call B.S. on this one. If you didn’t know what Aleppo was before his gaff, then fine, but I’m going to assume you aren’t running to be the commander in chief of the largest military on the planet. Johnson is, and if he isn’t up to speed on something that is in the news literally every day, then he has no business thinking himself a serious candidate.
Gary Johnson is my candidate for president. I think he’s got to get smart on these issues and I hope our press keeps up this trend of asking pointed questions about specifics regarding policy questions then expecting real answers.
Your take is spot on, John. I have been reading up on Gary for a few weeks. I only heard about the gaff when I scrolled through Facebook to find a Herman Cain post blasting Gary Johnson for saying “what is a leppo?” … I clicked the bait. All I saw was a small snippet of an MSNBC interview where 5 journalists seemed to enjoy that they knew more about death and war than a presidential candidate. He was humbled because the news folks got him. But they had these grins on their faces like diva house wives bragging about… Read more »