MARK GRABER: “Has anyone noticed that what seems to unite the first politicians to declare their candidacy for the presidency is a total lack of experience in foreign policy. Indeed, such inexperience seems almost to be a qualification for the contemporary presidency which, since 1976 has been occupied for all but four years by a person with no foreign policy experience. From Jimmy Carter on, winning slogans seem to be ‘Vote for Me: Because I have Never Made a Foreign Policy Decision I Cannot Be Blamed For Our Present Mess.'”

This bespeaks a — well-founded — lack of confidence in our foreign-policy establishment, but it’s probably actually a formula for giving that establishment more, rather than less, influence over time.