Lindsey Graham: GOP Presidential Candidates Need To Get Foreign Policy Critiques More 'Organized'
WASHINGTON -- Top Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says that his party's candidates for president need to get their foreign policy critiques better "organized" if they are going to make inroads against President Obama.
"I think we're not organized in our thoughts yet," Graham told The Huffington Post on Tuesday. "I'm going to help. I'm writing an article about how to have an organized thought."
Republicans running for the presidential nomination have struggled to find ways to effectively challenge the foreign policy of a president whose tactics have so far led to the death of Osama bin Laden, a successful military operation in Libya and expanded militarism elsewhere in the Middle East.
Despite flagging poll numbers, Obama has remained broadly popular among voters for his handling of international affairs and counterterrorism efforts.
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that even the recent decision to fully withdraw all American troops from Iraq at the end of the year has the support of 71 percent of voters.
Graham, who is one of the leading Republican voices on foreign policy, said that he would suggest that the candidates give Obama "tactical success credit" for these accomplishments, while focusing on the president's "many strategic blunders."
"The national security record at the strategic level of the Obama administration, from detention policies to Iraq to Afghanistan, I think, is ill designed and will create real problems," Graham said. "I hope our candidates will take that issue up, because they should."
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First Posted: 11/08/11 06:07 PM ET Updated: 11/08/11 10:06 PM ET