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Robert Gates was not kind to 2016 Election GOP Candidates
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appeared at the Council of Foreign Relations recently where he was interviewed by Tom Brokaw. He addressed several of the topics in his book titled “A Passion for Leadership” that was recently released. Robert Gates was not kind to the 2016 election GOP field.
Brokaw asked Robert Gates how well the country was being served given the real challenges that are before us. His answer was epic.
I think middle school kids would be embarrassed by the level of dialogue going on in the national campaign about how we deal with the problems we are facing. I think these men and women are making these broad pronouncements, clearly don’t know what they are talking about. You quoted them, the sand glow, carpet bombing the sh$t out of them, and things like that, I think the leading candidate. This is not a particularly sophisticated level of analysis of the challenges that we face. And the thing that I find disappointing, and I realize that politicians have to put spin on things and so on. But they do a disservice in not being honest with the American people that taking on a problem like ISIS and the extremism associated with ISIS is complex, is going to be hard and it is going to take a lot of time. And it is going to take some sacrifice. And there are no easy solutions. And there are certainly no quick solutions. The worrying this is that they actually believe what they are saying. And if that is the case, we really are in trouble. So we are the situation where the optimistic interpretation is that they are just being cynical and opportunistic.
Unfortunately those that really believe their own silly narratives are the ones in the lead. The pragmatists cannot seem to get their Right Wing base, their voting base, to take them seriously. Gates subsequently appeared on Andrea Mitchell Reports where he made similar statements.
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