Last night's Democratic debate featured a round of questioning by Wolf Blitzer pitting "national security" against "human rights". DemocraticLuntz remarked on Dodd's wrong answer, which got me to research that section of the debate, and reply in more detail, which I share in this diary.
The context was depending on Musharraf's new dictatorship in Pakistan to defend the US. But Blitzer the crude soundbiter reduced the question to an overall conflict between national security and human rights, as a presidential policy. First Chris Dodd, then (after an uncharacteristically brief concurring grunt from Joe Biden) also Hillary Clinton, all claimed national security as if it were an obvious choice, or even a legitimate choice at all. Though Clinton did indeed challenge Blitzer's false choice premise, she first endorsed it.
I'll show how they went wrong, and how a good leader would go right.
(Updated 11:49AM/Pacific with Obama's correct answer)
(Updated 12:28PM/Pacific with Richardson's correct answer and add poll)
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