Her Big Foreign Policy Speech on Thursday was as combative as any you’ll hear from a presidential candidate, a preview of what is sure to be a relentless barrage of hypotheticals about the apocalyptic geopolitical future that awaits us should Trump ever get his baby-like hands on the nuclear launch codes. Trump wants Saudi Arabia to get the bomb. Trump wants Japan to get the bomb. Trump will start ground wars over petty offenses to his ego and let ISIS run wild across the Middle East.
It helps that Trump’s stated foreign policy has been every bit the indecipherable hodgepodge of “bizarre rants, personal feuds, and outright lies” Clinton made it out to be. Which is a shame, because it obscures how flimsy the second half of her argument is.
Clinton is not just running on the presumption that Trump is “dangerously incoherent” and “temperamentally unfit” to be president, but also on the suggestion that she, by contrast, will bring competence and stability to the office. “Unlike him, I have experience,” she said. Somebody other than Trump could have success attacking Clinton’s foreign policy experience, which could easily be framed as the weakest part of her record. But the prospect of a Trump presidency may be scary enough to allow Clinton to skirt a real foreign policy debate completely.