A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

I realize that Presidential candidates are under a lot of stress and pressure and from time to time, they make a gaffe or two. But this is ridiculous and indicates quite clearly that Mike Huckabee is not the most well-versed foreign policy candidate around . . . to say the least:

Explaining statements he made suggesting that the instability in Pakistan should remind Americans to tighten security on the southern border of the United States, Mr. Huckabee said Friday that "we have more Pakistani illegals coming across our border than all other nationalities, except those immediately south of the border."

Asked to justify the statement, he later cited a March 2006 article in The Denver Post reporting that from 2002 to 2005, Pakistanis were the most numerous non-Latin Americans caught entering the United States illegally. According to The Post, 660 Pakistanis were detained in that period.

A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security, however, concluded that, over all, illegal immigrants from the Philippines, India, Korea, China and Vietnam were all far more numerous than those from Pakistan.

In a separate interview on Friday on MSNBC, Mr. Huckabee, a Republican, said that the Pakistani government "does not have enough control of those eastern borders near Afghanistan to be able go after the terrorists." Those borders are on the western side of Pakistan, not the eastern side.

This is embarrassing. This is unsettling. And this appears to indicate that Mike Huckabee is not ready for prime time. Add all of this to Huckabee's past foreign policy errors--including his disastrous Foreign Affairs article and his complete lack of preparedness in discussing the recent NIE on Iran's nuclear capabilities a full 24 hours after the NIE was made public--and you have a Presidential candidate not ready for prime time.

I measure my words carefully when I write this: If Huckabee can't be bothered, during an era of consequence when it comes to matters of foreign policy and national security--to learn the basics of foreign policy, then he has no business running for President. And if he persists in running, he will have no business being surprised once the electorate makes clear that they will not take him seriously thanks to his lack of knowledge.