Biden goes on the attack, but doesn't ‘stick' the landing

Vice President Joe Biden continued to step into his role as the Obama campaign's leading national-security attack dog with a speech at New York University on Thursday that questioned Mitt Romney's credentials to serve as commander-in-chief and accused him of distorting the president's record. "If you're looking for a bumper sticker to sum up how President Obama has handled what we inherited, it's pretty simple: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive," Biden said. He also again mocked Romney's suggestion that Russia is America's primary geopolitical foe and defended the administration's handling of the Iranian nuclear program, saying, "The only step we could take that we aren't already taking is to launch a war against Iran. If that's what Gov. Romney means by a 'very different policy,' he should tell the American people."

Unfortunately for Biden, the line of the speech that got by far the most coverage was his confident assertion that "the president has a big stick."

Rubio grabs the spotlight

The day before Biden's speech, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio made a "major foreign policy address" of his own at the Brookings Institution. The speech generated quite a bit of buzz thanks to suggestions that Rubio may be on the shortlist for Romney's running mate. (For the record, Rubio has repeatedly denied that he's interested in being vice president.)

But despite the expectation that Rubio would use the speech as an audition for a spot on the ticket, Rubio differed from Romney on topics including foreign aid, the use of force in Syria and Libya, and negotiating with Iran. Saying that he often feels more affinity with hawkish democrats than isolationist republicans in the Senate, Rubio joked that "on foreign policy, if you go far enough to the right, you wind up on the left."

The Syria debate

Sure enough, the very next day Rubio found himself in a tussle with fellow Senate Republicans over a resolution he had co-sponsored condemning the Bashar al-Assad regime's violence in Syria. GOP Senators including Richard Lugar and Bob Corker objected to language calling on Assad to step down. The debate highlighted a split in opinion within the party on Syria. House GOP members demanded assurances this week that the White House would notify Congress in accordance with the war powers act should military action be taken in Syria.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called his week for the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo and other tough measures on Syria. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey also told Congress that the Pentagon would be ready to provide military options in Syria should it be required.    

Romney has advocated support for the anti-Assad opposition, but stopped short of supporting military involvement -- breaking with more aggressive members of his party such as Sen. John McCain. Romney campaign foreign policy director Alex Wong said this week that the Obama administration has been "shamefully absent from this crisis" in Syria.

Newt out

After five devastating primary losses to Romney, Newt Gingrich's campaign announced on Wednesday that the candidate is finally dropping out ... though not until next Tuesday. A spokesman said Gingrich is "laying out plans now how as a citizen he can best help stop [an] Obama second term and win congressional majorities." It's thought that he will most likely endorse Romney.

The former speaker of the House ends his campaign having won two states and 137 delegates -- but he leaves behind a legacy of out-of-the-box ideas on topics ranging from the virtues of janitorial work to algae fuels to conquering the moon.

Just like Condi

A CNN poll this week found that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a narrow favorite among Republicans for Romney's VP pick. (Now teaching at Stanford, she has said repeatedly that she's not interested in the job.) Rice, at 26 percent, is followed by Rick Santorum, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and Marco Rubio. Interesting, despite the Florida senator's moderate views on immigration and internationalist foreign policy, he's still the favorite among self-described Tea Party supporters.

The latest from FP:

Paul Miller makes the case for Gen. David Petraeus as vice president.

Responding to Biden's speech, Michael A. Cohen says the Democrats need to decide if Romney is George W. Bush or Michael Dukakis.

Romney campaign advisor Richard Williamson says the recent North Korean nuclear test was Obama's Jimmy Carter moment.

Aaron David Miller offers 5 reasons why he believes Obama has the election in the bag. 

Joshua E. Keating thinks Rubio's speech was pitched more toward 2016 than 2012.

Scott Clement looks at whether Americans still hate the United Nations.

From Passport, the difference between a slip of the tongue and genuine ignorance.

The Presumptive Nominee

After pulling off a hat trick on Tuesday night, winning the primaries in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Wisconsin, Mitt Romney now boasts an unassailable lead in delegates. Barring major unforeseen circumstances, he seems virtually guaranteed to be the Republican candidate in November. (Though second-place contender Rick Santorum -- not to mention Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul -- has given little indication that he plans to drop out.)

His new position as the presumptive nominee may give Romney more latitude to broaden his pitch to moderates and independents and focus his attacks more directly on President Barack Obama. The president certainly assumes that Romney is the opponent he will face in the fall, taking time during a speech this week to mock the former governor's support for a GOP budget he described as right-wing "social Darwinism."

Obama's hidden agenda

The Romney campaign has continued to take advantage of Obama's "hot mic" moment during a conversation with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Last Friday, spokesperson Andrea Saul suggested that the president "should release the notes and transcripts of all his meetings with world leaders so the American people can be satisfied that he's not promising to sell out the country's interests after the election is over."

The notion that the president has a hidden agenda on foreign policy may emerge as a central campaign talking point. In a speech Wednesday to the Newspaper Association of America, Romney suggested that the incident "raises all kinds of serious questions: What exactly does President Obama intend to do differently once he is no longer accountable to the voters? Why does ‘flexibility' with foreign leaders require less accountability to the American people? And on what other issues will he state his true position only after the election is over?"

Release the Biden

Vice President Joe Biden has been relatively quiet during this primary season. But in an appearance on Face The Nation last Sunday, the VP came out swinging, questioning Romney's qualifications on foreign policy. Referring to Romney's description of Russia as America's No. 1 geopolitical foe, Biden said, "He just seems to be uninformed or stuck in a Cold War mentality." He went on to say that Russia is "united with us on Iran."

The Romney campaign responded: "Vice President Biden appears to have forgotten the Russian government's opposition to crippling sanctions on Iran, its obstructionism on Syria, and its own backsliding into authoritarianism."

Good for the Jews?

Heading into Passover weekend, a new poll shows that fears that Obama's tensions with the Israeli government would erode his support among Jewish voters may be unfounded. The poll, by the Public Religion Research Institute, showed 62 percent of Jews supporting Obama's reelection, with little evidence of change in support for the president since 2008. While Jews tend to hold more hawkish views on Iran than other American voters, according to the poll only 2 percent listed it as their top voting priority. Just 4 percent listed Israel.

In a Passover message this week, Obama referred to the recent anti-Semitic killings in France, saying that the Exodus story was a reminder that "Throughout our history, there are those who have targeted the Jewish people for harm, a fact we were so painfully reminded of just a few weeks ago in Toulouse."

Trump roast

Guess who's back? In an appearance on Laura Ingraham's radio show on Tuesday, real estate mogul, reality-show star, and onetime primary candidate Donald Trump suggested that Obama will start a war with Iran to bolster his reelection chances. "If you remember Bush, Bush was unbeatable for about two months, and then all of the sudden the world set in when he attacked Iraq. And he went from very popular to not popular at all. But I think that Obama will start in some form a war with Iran, and I think that will make him very popular for a short period of time. That will make him hard to beat also."

The comment was somewhat overshadowed the next day when the Donald offered to show his genitals to attorney Gloria Allred.

What to watch for:

Obama's week will be heavy in Latin America, with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff visiting the White House on Monday and the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, beginning April 14.

There are no primaries this week, but Romney is looking ahead to the April 24 contest in Pennsylvania, trying to put the final nail in Santorum's coffin by winning his home state.

The latest from FP:

Joshua Keating lists 7 foreign-policy flip-flops Romney needs to make now.

Heleen Mees says Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke might be the greatest obstacle to Obama's reelection.

Uri Friedman looks at the foreign-policy views of Rep. Paul Ryan, whose buzz as a possible VP contender has been growing.

Daniel Drezner asks readers to take the Trump Foreign Policy Challenge.

Romney, the sketchy frontrunner

Mitt Romney commandingly won the Illinois primary this week, picking up at least 41 delegates to Rick Santorum's 10 and bolstering his argument that he is now, essentially, the presumptive GOP nominee. Santorum's strategy now hinges on convincing delegates in states where they are selected at party conventions to switch to his side, thus preventing Romney from reaching the 1,144 delegates he needs to secure the nomination. But, right now, it looks unlikely that he'll be able to force a contested convention in Tampa.

Romney didn't have much time to enjoy his front-runner status this week, with an embarrassing gaffe by his spokesman Eric Fehrnstom on Tuesday morning, who described Romney's ability to pivot to a general election campaign as being "almost like an Etch-A-Sketch.... You can shake it up, and we start all over again." The Etch-A-Sketch children's toy -- and the illusion to Romney as a blank-slate flip-flopper -- has already become a staple prop of Santorum's stump speech.

It's the foreign policy, stupid

Both Romney and Santorum continued their attacks on the administration's foreign policy this week, lending more credibility to the emerging narrative that national security, rather than the economy, may become the dominant issue of the campaign.

Santorum criticized the Obama administration's Afghanistan policy in an appearance on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "If the game plan is, we're leaving, irrespective of whether we're going to succeed or not, then why are we still there? Let's either commit to winning or let's get out," he said.

Romney once again deferred to "better judgment." Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Romney conceded that "I think it's very plain to see that the conditions are not going very well" in Afghanistan, but said "the timing of withdrawal is going to be dependent about what you hear from the conditions on the ground" and the advice of military commanders.

Obama to Seoul

The president is traveling to South Korea this weekend for a 50-nation nuclear summit that will likely be overshadowed by North Korea's recently announced plans to launch a rocket next month. The administration has condemned the move as a violation of Pyongyang's recent agreement to halt weapons tests and return to nuclear talks.

North Korea's nuclear program has gotten less attention on the campaign trail than Iran, though Romney has called for the United States to pursue regime change in North Korea following the death of former leader Kim Jong Il.

Energy

With the campaign now moving to Louisiana, rising gas prices and offshore drilling are very much on the agenda this week. At a speech in Cushing, Oklahoma -- a major pipeline hub -- Obama defended his administration's energy policy, emphasizing the U.S. crude production has increased under his presidency and that the number of operating oil rigs is at an all-time high.

GOP candidates have hammered the president's decision to delay construction of the northern half of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport oil from Canada. Newt Gingrich, in particular, has reframed his struggling campaign almost entirely around the issue of gas prices. "He doesn't have a green energy policy, he has a greenback energy policy. He keeps shoveling out greenbacks to failing ideas and propping them up with our tax money and with our children's money," Gingrich told Fox this week.

Romney has also blamed the "gas-hike trio" -- Obama's Energy secretary, EPA administrator, and Interior secretary - for high fuel prices, though as critics have pointed out, Romney actually suggested high energy prices could be a good thing when he was promoting "smart growth" policies as governor of Massachusetts.

The GOP attacks on Obama's energy policies have bewildered many environmentalists, who haven't exactly seen eye-to-eye with him throughout his presidency. "The president is very much in the center -- far too much in the center for many environmentalists," global warming activist Bill McKibben told the AP.

What to watch for:

Louisiana holds its primary on Saturday, with polls showing a strong lead for Santorum. Then, it's a rare week off before Maryland, Wisconsin, and Washington D.C. hold their contests on April 3.

The latest from FP

Stephen Walt argues that the drawn-out U.S. election system prevents presidents from conducting a coherent foreign policy.

Scott Clement looks at whether Afghan's still support the U.S. war in their country.

Aaron David Miller debunks the biggest myths about Israel's clout in Washington.

Global Times editor Hu Xijin doubts Romney would back up his aggressive rhetoric on China if he makes it to the White House.

Steve Levine sees the Obama administration's decision to slap tariffs on Chinese solar panels as election year politics.

Uri Friedman finds one place where the president still has overwhelming support: Sweden.

Can you tell 1980s Libertarian Ron Paul from today's Republican Ron Paul? Take our quiz to find out.

A few weeks ago, a video circulated online of Rick Santorum claiming that 1 in 20 deaths in the Netherlands are caused by involuntary euthanasia. According to Santorum, elderly Dutch wear bracelets that say "do not euthanize me" and "don't go to the hospital, they go to another country, because they're afraid because of budget purposes that they will not come out of that hospital if they go into it with sickness."

The remark was met with some bafflement in the Netherlands, and a Dutch television reporter recently cornered a Santorum spokesperson to ask about it: 

"It's a matter of what's in his heart. He's a strong pro-life person," press secretary Alice Stewart replies. 

After all, like the origin of the universe or the existence of a supreme being, Dutch medical statistics are ultimately unknowable -- just another of the unresolvable mysteries that have confronted us since the dawn of mankind. Who are we? Why are we here? What are the laws in the Netherlands concerning doctor-assisted suicide? We all have our own beliefs. 

Santorum knows in his heart that elderly Dutch people are routinely euthanized against their will by doctors. He believes this to be true, no matter what the elite media tries to tell him.

It's the same way I know that one in four Laotians are born with an extra finger and that the most common name in Chad is Chad. It's just what I believe. 

Nail-biter in Michigan

Mitt Romney easily won the Arizona primary on Tuesday and eked out a victory against a surging Rick Santorum in Michigan, where Romney was born and his father was a popular governor. While Santorum cast the close contest as a victory of sorts ("a month ago, they didn't know who we are," he told supporters), the results solidified Romney's status as the frontrunner in the topsy-turvy Republican race. The former Massachusetts governor, who now has roughly double the number of delegates as Santorum, is leading the pack of remaining GOP candidates comfortably in most national polls.

Iran and gas prices

Last month, Newt Gingrich shifted the focus of his campaign to energy in a bet that owning the issue of rising gas prices could help him claw back into the race. Gingrich has pledged to lower gas prices to $2.50 per gallon by increasing domestic energy production through initiatives such as the Keystone XL pipeline. Now, as tensions mount with Iran over its nuclear program and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to visit Washington, the other candidates are following suit. Romney accused President Barack Obama of stifling fracking -- a controversial technique to unlock oil and gas in underground rock formations -- through excessive regulations, Santorum went so far as to brandish a piece of oil-rich shale rock during his Michigan concession speech to demonstrate his support for the energy industry. (In another nod to stage props this week, Ron Paul waved a silver coin at Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to argue for returning to the gold and silver standard.)

Obama has been talking energy too, calling for an end to $4 billion in annual tax breaks and subsidies for oil and gas companies. A Pew survey released on Thursday found that voters are spreading the blame for rising gas prices among the administration, oil companies, and Iran -- though Republicans are much more likely to blame Obama.

Obama: "I don't bluff"

In an interview with the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg on Iran ahead of a meeting with Netanyahu, Obama declared that the United States would consider taking military action to destroy Iran's nuclear program if economic sanctions fail to compel it to comply with international inspections, but added that now is not the right time for a preemptive Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. "I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don't bluff," he noted. "I also don't, as a matter of sound policy, go around advertising exactly what our intentions are." On Twitter, former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann shot back: "Obama doesn't ‘go around advertising exactly what our [foreign policy] intentions are?' What about #Iraq/#Afghanistan?"

As he launches his reelection campaign, Obama has been trumpeting foreign policy successes such as ending the war in Iraq and killing Osama bin Laden. While "the other side traditionally seems to feel that the Democrats are somehow weak on defense," he recently told supporters, "they're having a little trouble making that argument this year" (a poll last month found that voters trust Obama more than Romney to handle international affairs). Yet Bloomberg's Terry Atlas points out that, in an election dominated by economic concerns, "foreign policy barely registers as an issue in public opinion polls," though an "arc of crises from Libya to Afghanistan" may yet change all that.

Read what George W. Bush advisors Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie have to say on the matter in the latest issue of Foreign Policy -- and a spirited rebuttal by Democratic pollsters Stanley Greenberg and Jeremy Rosner.

Apologizing in Afghanistan

The Republican candidates have long accused Obama of apologizing for America's actions abroad, and this week the refrain came in the context of the president apologizing to Afghans for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan even as U.S. soldiers were killed in retaliation. Gingrich called the apology "astonishing" and suggested that the United States tell Afghans, "You're going to have to figure out how to live your own miserable life." Santorum accused Obama of "weakness" while Romney also criticized the decision.

In a larger piece about the Republicans and Afghanistan, Dominic Tierney at the Atlantic argues that the Republican Party is deeply divided about Afghanistan. The fundamental question facing the GOP, he writes, is whether the "end of defeating radical Islam [is] worth the means of big government nation-building."

Santorum's ‘snob' snafu

Santorum stirred controversy this week by suggesting that Obama was a "snob" for wanting "everybody in America to go to college." Obama "wants to remake you in his image," the former Pennsylvania senator argued. "I want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his." Santorum appeared to subsequently backtrack from the comments, noting in his Michigan concession speech that his mother was an "unusual person for her time" by getting a college education in the 1930s, but the comment nevertheless touched off a debate about U.S. education. News outlets pointed out that Obama also supports the type of vocational training that Santorum champions, and that the former Pennsylvania senator backed increasing grants for college students during his reelection campaign in 2006.

What to watch for

All eyes now turn to Super Tuesday on March 6, when ten states will vote and more than 400 delegates will be up for grabs. The biggest battleground is the delegate-rich swing state of Ohio, where Romney has steadily been cutting into Santorum's lead. "For Romney," the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza notes, "it's uniquely possible that winning the Buckeye State on Tuesday would effectively clinch the presidential nomination for him."

The latest from FP

Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie offer a primer to the GOP candidates on how to beat Barack Obama on foreign policy.

Jeremy Rosner and Stanley Greenberg respond by pointing out that Americans have confidence in Obama as commander in chief.

Michael Cohen adds that Rove and Gillespie are "stuck in a 9/12 mindset."

Reza Aslan presents readers with a quiz: Who said it, Rick Santorum or Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei?

Gal Luft wonders whether Obama will remake himself into a war president when faced with a choice between high gas prices and a nuclear Iran.

Michael Levi argues that Obama's record on energy is stronger than his Republican rivals claim.

Vaclav Smil explains why Mitt Romney is right to focus on the importance of Canadian energy.

Scott Clement points out that while Americans may not like North Korea, few want to go to war over its nuclear weapons.

Jack Chow makes the case for why a President Santorum would be great news for the AIDS fight in Africa.

Susan Glasser connects the dots on the nasty rhetoric in the U.S. and Russian elections.

Daniel Drezner maintains that Santorum's views on manufacturing are antiquated.

Mr. Xi comes to Washington

This week's Washington foreign-policy agenda was dominated by the visit of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, the country's presumptive next leader. Xi's meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama was fairly cordial, but it fell to his direct counterpart -- Vice President Joe Biden -- to register a few complaints about China's trade practices and human rights record. "As Americans, we welcome competition," Biden said. "But cooperation, as you and I have spoken about, can only be mutually beneficial if the game is fair."  

Mitt Romney took aim at the administration's China policy in a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week, saying that the president had come into office as a "near supplicant to Beijing" and had since "demurred from raising issues of human rights for fear it would compromise agreement on the global economic crisis or even ‘the global climate-change crisis.' Such weakness has only encouraged Chinese assertiveness and made our allies question our staying power in East Asia." Romney promised to label China a currency manipulator on "day one of my presidency."

Onetime candidate Jon Huntsman, a former ambassador to China who now has endorsed Romney, addressed the anti-China rhetoric that has appeared in both the presidential race and congressional races throughout the country. "It's much easier to talk about China in terms of the fear factor than the opportunity factor," Huntsman told MSNBC." When it comes to China, I think it's wrongheaded when you talk about slapping a tariff on Day One. That pushes aside the reality, the complexity of the relationship."

Motor City Mayhem

The next primaries will take place on Feb. 28 in Arizona and Michigan. The Wolverine State is considered home turf for Romney -- he was born in Detroit, his father was a popular governor, and Mitt won big over John McCain there in 2008 -- but the Michigan native trails Rick Santorum by 9 points in the current RealClearPolitics poll average.

Romney has defended his opposition to the Obama administration's auto industry bailouts -- a somewhat controversial position during a week when General Motors reported record profits. Romney has emphasized his deep roots in the state and nostalgia for the days of U.S. auto dominance, telling a crowd, "I love cars. I grew up totally in love with cars. It used to be, in the '50s and '60s, if you showed me 1 square foot of almost any part of the car, I could tell you what brand it was -- the model and so forth.... Now, with all the Japanese cars, I'm not quite so good at it. But I still know American cars pretty well." (Never mind that the candidate drives a Canadian-made Chrysler in a new ad.)

Santorum, meanwhile, has promised to revitalize the U.S. manufacturing sector by giving tax incentives to companies that move production back from overseas and cutting away at Obama-era regulations.

Border War

Meanwhile, Romney still leads Santorum in Arizona, but the gap is narrowing, despite the fact that the former Pennsylvania senator has virtually no ground organization in the state. The Arizona contest may push the candidates back to the right on immigration, after some more conciliatory rhetoric in Florida. Romney has been touting the support of Kris Kobach, the attorney and Kansas secretary of state who played a critical role in drafting Arizona's controversial SB 1070 immigration law.

Arizona has gone Republican in every presidential election but one since 1952, but Democrats may be hoping that the state will be in play in the fall, thanks to a backlash from the state's growing Hispanic population. Senior Obama campaign advisor David Axelrod has visited the state in recent months and the Democratic National Committee has begun running ads targeting Latino voters.

An Iranian attack on North Dakota?

Santorum's longtime fixation on the threat posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions has been well-documented. But the rhetoric reached a new level this week when the candidate warned an audience in North Dakota that they might be a potential target for Iranian-sponsored terrorism. "Folks, you've got energy here. They're going to bother you. They'll bother you, because you are a very key and strategic resource for this country," he said. "No one is safe. No one is safe from asymmetric threats of terrorism.... That's what Iran will be all about unless we stop them from getting that nuclear weapon."

As the National Review pointed out, Santorum's security concerns have dampened his enthusiasm for building a massive new oil pipeline through the state.

Adelson re-ups on Gingrich

Onetime frontrunner Newt Gingrich is sitting out the current contests in Michigan and Arizona, focusing on the ten March 6 "Super Tuesday" primaries, which include his home state of Georgia. Gingrich spent the majority of this week fundraising in California.

Gingrich's slumping campaign may get a significant shot in the arm with news that billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson -- his principal financier -- will give an additional $10 million to the Super PAC backing Gingrich.  Adelson, known for his hawkish views on Israel and opposition to a Palestinian state, has given $11 million so far to the "Winning the Future" Super PAC.

What to watch for

Last week's Maine caucus may not actually be over yet. Romney was declared the winner -- by less than 200 votes over Ron Paul -- on Saturday, Feb. 11. despite the fact that one county had delayed its caucus due to weather and numerous irregularities were reported at other stations. The state GOP has announced that it will release a new vote total in March -- after Super Tuesday. Maine is a small state and its caucus is what's known as a "beauty contest" (it doesn't actually award any delegates), but it won't do wonders for the credibility of the early caucus system, if yet another victory -- remember Iowa? -- is posthumously taken away from Romney. 

Evidently, the candidates seem to have tired of debates. A planned CNN debate scheduled for March 1 in Georgia has been canceled after Romney and Paul declined to participate.

On the Election Channel

Uri Friedman looks at a new poll that shows a majority of Americans support the use of force to prevent a nuclear Iran.

Scott Clement says despite the recent dust-up over contraceptive-covering insurance, religion may not actually matter that much to voters.

Daniel Drezner says Romney's China policy "reads like it was composed by the Hulk."

Stephen Walt says hawks should vote for Obama.

Michael A. Cohen looks at why, with Obama in office, liberals came to support the secret war on terror.

Romney pulls away

Mitt Romney decisively won Florida's primacy on Tuesday with 46 percent of the vote. Newt Gingrich came in second with a disappointing 32 percent. Trailing far behind were Rick Santorum with 13 percent and Ron Paul with 7 percent. But Gingrich in a concession speech that often felt more like a victory speech, vowed to continue fighting in what he described as a "two-person race" between himself and the "Massachusetts moderate." Santorum and Paul are also staying in the hunt.

Several of the foreign-policy issues that had been billed as potential game changers this season appeared not to be major factors in Florida. Candidates have been highly vocal on Israel in hopes of peeling Jewish votes away from President Barack Obama, who has publicly clashed with the Israeli government on several occasions. But if a significant number of Jews are changing their voter registration to Republican, they've been quiet so far. Poll analyst Nate Silver of the New York Times noted that only 1 percent of the voters in this year's Florida primary identified as Jewish, down from 3 percent in 2008.

Despite the heavy emphasis on immigration reform in campaign rhetoric, very few Florida voters called undocumented immigrants their top concern. Romney, who has been somewhat more hawkish than other candidates on the topic of immigration, took a majority of the Latino vote -- as well as nearly six of ten Cuban-American voters.

But things haven't been going quite so well for Romney since his sweeping victory in Florida. He has been heavily criticized for remarks on Wednesday morning that he is "not concerned about the very poor" in a CNN interview. The candidate says he misspoke, but a highly publicized endorsement from Donald Trump on Thursday may not have been the best way to combat the perception that he's out of touch with economically struggling Americans.

Politics of the pullout

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta surprised many by saying that the United States hopes to end its combat mission in Afghanistan by mid-2013, up to 18 months sooner than expected. The Romney campaign was quick to pounce, with the candidate calling the administration's plans "naïve" and "misguided."

"Why in the world do you go to the people that you're fighting with and tell them the date you're pulling out your troops?" Romney said at a campaign stop in Las Vegas. "It makes absolutely no sense." Perhaps banking on low public support for continuing the war, Obama's press secretary Jay Carney countered Romney's criticism, saying troops "will not stay in Afghanistan any longer than is necessary to accomplish that mission."

The GOP front-runner has consistently criticized the administration's withdrawal plans, though earlier this year Romney himself announced his intention to "bring our troops home as soon as we possibly can."

The Iran factor

This week saw another round of speculation in Washington over whether Israel will attack Iran's nuclear facilities. According to the Washington Post's David Ignatius,  Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood Israel will attack Iran this spring or summer, before Iran enters a "zone of immunity" to commence building a nuclear weapon.

Iran is likely to continue to dominate the campaign agenda with Gingrich warning recently that "If Iranians get nuclear weapons, they don't have to fire a missile. They can just drive a boat into Jacksonville. Drive a boat into New York harbor." Gingrich has said he would launch a U.S. strike on Iran "only as a last recourse, and only as a step towards replacing the regime."

Romney has also argued that "If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon."

Gates says to tone it down

Robert Gates, who served as secretary of defense to both George W. Bush and Obama, addressed the GOP field in an interview with CNN on Thursday, warning against overheated campaign rhetoric calling Obama weak-willed on Iran.  "You know sometimes things get pretty heated in campaigns, but I think the reality is there is an acknowledgment on people's part around the world that this president is willing to use military force when our needs require it," he said.

Gates addressed both sides of the debate over Iran, saying, "Those who say we shouldn't attack, I think, underestimate the consequences of Iran having a nuclear weapon....  And those who say we should, underestimate the consequences of going to war."

What to watch for

Nevada voters will caucus on Saturday with Romney heavily favored to win. Maine will hold its caucuses throughout the week starting on Saturday. Colorado and Minnesota will both hold caucuses on Tuesday. The caucus format could provide an opening for Paul and Santorum, who both tend to inspire more enthusiasm in their (admittedly smaller) base of supporters than the two frontrunners. Paul has been campaigning heavily in Maine since last week.

The latest from FP

Scott Clement looks at why Obama shouldn't expect voters to flock to the polls to reward him for killing Osama bin Laden.

Michael Cohen says the decision to leave Afghanistan early will prove to be smart politics for the president.

Michael Shifter lays out the Latin America debate the candidates should have had in Florida, instead of just bashing Fidel Castro.

Robert Satloff channels his inner William Safire and explains why presidents should stop describing U.S. support for Israel as "ironclad."

Joseph Sarkisian asks whether a vote for Romney is a vote for war with Iran.

Peter Feaver argues that it's time for the GOP candidates to stop attacking each other and offer a sharp critique of Obama's foreign policy.

Josh Rogin reports on Romney's pledge to defend South Sudan.

Joshua Keating wonders whether Gingrich's campaign rhetoric will inspire a new generation to read the works of Saul Alinsky.

Perry and Huntsman bow out

The Republican field continued to narrow this week with two once-promising candidates dropping out before this Saturday's pivotal South Carolina primary. Jon Huntsman, the former U.S. ambassador to China whose campaign touted his foreign policy credentials but never connected with primary voters, ended his run on Monday. He immediately endorsed Mitt Romney, while attacking the state of the rhetoric in the GOP primary. "At its core, the Republican Party is a party of ideas, but the current toxic form of our political discourse does not help our cause," he said.

On Thursday, Rick Perry also bowed out and endorsed Newt Gingrich on a surreal news day on the campaign trail that also saw the final debate in South Carolina. The morning started with news that Rick Santorum may actually have won the Iowa primary by 34 votes, and later that day ABC aired an interview with Gingrich's ex-wife in which she claimed the former House Speaker had asked for an "open marriage."

Perry's departure followed another lackluster debate performance on Tuesday during which he claimed that Turkey's government was run by "what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists" -- prompting an angry response from Ankara  -- and seemed to defend the U.S. Marines caught on video urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters.

The Gingrich surge

Allegations about his personal life notwithstanding, Gingrich continues to rise -- with recent polls showing him in a virtual tie with Romney in South Carolina. A Pew Poll taken last week showed Gingrich as the candidate Republican voters trust most to handle foreign policy at 33 percent, compared to Romney's 25 percent. Unfortunately for the Gingrich insurgency, an overwhelming majority of the same voters (58 percent) think Romney has the best chance of beating President Barack Obama. On the campaign trail this week, Gingrich described himself as "the only candidate in this race who understands the scale of change necessary to get this country working again."

Romney's offshore accounts

Already fending off questions about his vast personal wealth, Romney is facing additional scrutiny this week thanks to reports that he has as much as $8 million invested in funds listed in the Cayman Islands. Though Romney does still pay U.S. taxes on his income from these funds, the Cayman address offers some benefits over domestically registration, such as higher management fees and greater foreign interest -- benefits that cost the U.S. federal government billions of dollars per year.

At the CNN debate on Thursday night, Romney was booed after saying he would probably wait to release his full tax returns in April if he's the presumptive nominee since "Every time we release things drip by drip, the Democrats go out with another array of attacks."

Romney refused to say if he would release his tax returns for previous years, as his father did when running for president in 1968. "I'm not going to apologize for being successful," he said.

Paul draws jeers for "golden rule"

Ron Paul's foreign policy views continue to polarize. In Tuesday's debate, Paul was asked about his opposition to the killing of Osama bin Laden, and drew boos from the crowd by saying, "maybe we ought to consider a golden rule in foreign policy. Don't do to other nations what we don't want to have them do to us."

The Pew Poll showed only 10 percent of Republican voters thought Paul was the most trustworthy candidate on foreign policy -- though he still edged out Perry and Santorum.

"Obama's world"

President Obama sat down this week with Time's Fareed Zakaria for a wide-ranging interview on foreign policy, covering Iran, Afghanistan, the planned "pivot" to Asia, and the economy. The president defended his foreign-policy record, saying, "I made a commitment to change the trajectory of American foreign policy in a way that would end the war in Iraq, refocus on defeating our primary enemy, al-Qaeda, strengthen our alliances and our leadership in multilateral fora and restore American leadership in the world. And I think we have accomplished those principal goals."

What to watch for

South Carolina heads to the polls on Saturday with the latest RealClearPolitics poll average showing Gingrich at 32.5 percent and Romney at 31.5 percent. If he endures another weak finish in South Carolina, pressure may mount on Santorum to drop out of the race. (RCP has him in fourth place behind Paul.) Gingrich suggested on Tuesday that from the stand point of the conservative movement, consolidating into a Gingrich candidacy would in fact virtually guarantee a victory on Saturday."

The unexpected wild card in the race is comedian Stephen Colbert, who held a real-world rally with former candidate Herman Cain on Friday. Colbert's super-pac is encouraging South Carolina voters to cast a vote for Cain, though the pizza magnate was careful to assure voters, "I will not be assuming Stephen Colbert's identity. We are very different when it comes to the color of our - hair."

From South Carolina, the candidates will move on to Florida, a key battleground state, where Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog is predicting a 93 percent chance of a Romney win when voters head to the polls on Jan. 31.

The latest from FP:

Joshua Keating looks back at the foreign-policy lowlights of the Perry campaign.

Scott Clement suggests Iran could be a major liability for the president.

Uri Friedman looks at Paul's inadvertent tribute to Millard Fillmore.

David Rothkopf asks whether foreign-policy subtlety is even possible in today's media environment.

Peter Feaver thinks Zakaria missed an opportunity to probe more deeply into Obama foreign policy.

Josh Rogin looks at Obama's chummiest world leaders -- as suggested by the Time interview -- and what they say about him.

Iowa fallout

After weeks of debate and fluctuating polls, we finally have some actual results from a GOP primary. Mitt Romney won the Iowa Caucasus with 24.6 percent, edging out surprise second-place finisher Rick Santorum by only eight votes. In his rambling victory speech, Romney took the opportunity to attack the president on national security. "Iran is about to have nuclear weaponry, just down the road here, and this president, what's he done in that regard? He said he'd have a policy of engagement. How's that worked out?"

The next day, Romney received an endorsement from Sen. John McCain, who said his former 2008 rival was committed, like Ronald Reagan, to a philosophy of , "Peace through strength."

Ron Paul came in third place in Iowa and promised to continue pushing his vision for a noninterventionist foreign policy. "Our foreign policy has been a mess and drains us both economically and our military forces," he said.

After a disappointing fourth-place finish, once frontrunner Newt Gingrich promised to continue to attack "Massachusetts moderate" Romney, (he also called Romney a "liar" in an interview) but took the opportunity to blast Paul's foreign policy views as "stunningly dangerous for survival of the United States."

Rick Perry, who came in fifth with 10.3 percent of the vote, despite spending more money than any other candidate in Iowa, is apparently staying in the race for now.

After essentially finishing last (Jon Huntsman didn't contest the caucuses) Michele Bachmann dropped out of the race, vowing to "continue fighting to defeat the president's agenda of socialism."

Santorum in the spotlight

As the latest "non-Romney" to emerge in the race, Santorum's foreign-policy views are beginning to receive more scrutiny. In particular, Santorum has staked out a position even more extreme than Gingrich on the legitimacy of Palestinian aspirations for statehood.  "All the people that live in the West Bank are Israelis, they're not Palestinians... There is no 'Palestinian,'" he told a questioner back in November. (Israel probably wouldn't actually be thrilled with this position, as it would entail full Israeli political rights for Palestinians on the West Bank.)

Santorum has also recently vowed to bomb Iranian nuclear sites if they are not opened for inspections, saying that President Barack Obama's inaction against the Iranian nuclear program risks turning the United States into a paper tiger.

Huntsman's last stand

Huntsman has essentially staked his campaign on Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, opting out of Iowa entirely and campaigning non-stop in the Granite State. "We have to do well in New Hampshire," he told CBS news this week. The Boston Globe endorsed Huntsman this week, pointing specifically to his foreign policy experience. "While other candidates point toward Cold War-style rejection and isolation of China, Huntsman promises deeper engagement. But he had the courage as ambassador to walk among protesters, drawing the ire of repressive Chinese authorities," the editorial read.

Nonetheless, recent polls show that the majority of New Hampshire voters, particularly front-runner Mitt Romney's supporters, which Huntsman was hoping to pick off -- are unlikely to change their mind before Tuesday.

A new strategy for the Pentagon

On Thursday, the president announced a new military approach which aims to trim roughly $450 billion from the defense budget by shrinking the Army and Marines, focusing more heavily on Special Operations and drone forces, and making a strategic "pivot" from the Middle East and Central Asia to the Pacific.

With the exception of Paul and Huntsman, the Republican candidates all oppose large-scale defense cuts. Romney has ridiculed the idea of a strategic shift to Asia in the past, saying, "President Obama seems to think that we're going to have a global century, an Asian century. I believe we have to have an American century, where America leads the free world and the free world leads the entire world."

What to watch for

The candidates will meet for two final televised debates in New Hampshire on Saturday night and Sunday morning before voters head to the polls on Tuesday. Real Clear Politics' New Hampshire poll average shows Romney with a commanding 20 point lead over Paul, followed by Santorum, Huntsman, Gingrich, and Perry -- in that order.

Then it's on to South Carolina for the Jan. 21 primary, where Romney currently holds a 19 point lead over Santorum, his closest challenger.

The latest from FP

Scott Clement looks at why Huntsman's experience as ambassador won't help him win over skeptical GOP voters.

Joshua Keating says farewell, Michele and recounts Bachmann's "greatest hits" on foreign policy. Also, what's behind Santorum's strange fixation with Honduras?

David Kenner says Santorum's views on Israel could be "profoundly damaging to U.S. and Israeli interests."

Daniel Drezner argues that Paul would make an even worse president than Gingrich -- and that's saying something.

David Rothkopf wonders why Obama has been so modest as a communicator and lists some of the president's underappreciated successes he should be crowing about.

Peter Feaver criticizes the Paul campaign for having a soldier in uniform speak at a campaign event and says the Iowa results prove there will not be a crack-up in the Republican Party over foreign policy.

Paul gets his turn

Just days from the Iowa caucuses, polls show Congressmen Ron Paul surging into the lead. The libertarian has long been an annoyance for the Republican establishment, but Paul's success in the polls has brought with it the kind of negative press the congressman avoided when he was viewed as merely a fringe candidate. Much of the attention this week has focused on newsletters that were published in Paul's name during the 1990s, while he was out of office. (The newsletters were also an issue in the 2008 election after the New Republic ran a lengthy expose on their contents.)

In addition to disparaging comments about African Americans and gays, the newsletters contain incendiary language about Israel, describing it as "an aggressive, national socialist state." Another passage suggests that the 1993 World Trade Center bombings may have been the handiwork of the Israeli spy agency, the Mossad. Paul's views were already suspect among many Jewish Republicans, who declined to invite him to a major candidate forum in Washington earlier this month because of his support for cutting U.S. aid to Israel. In several interviews this week, Paul denied writing the newsletters or even being aware of their contents at the time.

Newt Gingrich, who has seen his fortunes in the polls fade as Paul has surged, took a shot at the new kid on the block this week, describing Paul's foreign-policy views as naïve. "This is a guy who basically says, if the United States were only nice, it wouldn't have had 9/11. He doesn't want to blame the bad guys," Gingrich said in a radio interview. "He dismisses the danger of an Iranian nuclear weapon and seems to be indifferent to the idea that Israel could be wiped out.  And as I said, I think the key to his volunteer base is people who want to legalize drugs."

Michael Cohen took on Paul's foreign policy in a piece for FP this week, arguing that "his entire philosophy is largely a renunciation of much of what Republicans believe about America's role in the world."

Romney comes out swinging on security

As the media frenzy focuses on Paul and Gingrich, Mitt Romney has been working to build his commander-in-chief credentials with a series of statements on foreign policy. Speaking to reporters on his campaign bus, he said he believes Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin "endangers the stability and peacefulness of the globe." Speaking just hours before terrorist bombings ripped through Baghdad, he described President Barack Obama's inability to secure an agreement to keep U.S. troops in Iraq as one of his "signature failures."

In an interview with Fox's Chris Wallace last weekend, Romney gave the president credit for giving the order for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, but then said that "any president would have done that." Critics immediately jumped on what appears to be yet another flip-flop from the candidate, who criticized candidate Obama in 2008 for saying he'd be willing to unilaterally order a raid within Pakistani territory. The Democratic National Committee  began running ads this week featuring comments from prominent Republicans including former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, praising the president's handling of the bin Laden raid.

North Korea reactions

Several of the candidates issued statements this week in reaction to the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. Romney called on China to "exert its influence" over its neighbor and take control of the North Korean nuclear weapons program. He also said that he hoped Kim's death would hasten the end of the North Korean regime. Former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman said Kim's death gives North Koreans "the best opportunity to get on a path towards a more free and open society and political reform." Rick Perry said the United States should "engage with China, and encourage Beijing to work towards a peaceful transition from a grim dictatorship to a free Korea," though the strength of his message was somewhat undermined by a press release referring to "Kim Jong II." To be fair, an "I" and an "l" look pretty similar ... and he's not the first candidate to think the late tyrant's name indicated that he was the second Kim Jong.

Obama's foreign-policy advantage?

Something of a consensus seems to be developing that -- considering the state of the U.S. economy -- that foreign policy could be the president's strong suit going into this election. CNN's Fareed Zakaria, writes that Republicans, facing two unpopular wars and unable to make traditional attacks of appeasement stick, are "effectively ceding the vast swathe of foreign policy to Obama." Conservative commentator Juan Williams notes that following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Obama "has fulfilled a major campaign promise" and that we're facing an unusual 2012 political scenario, in which Republicans will find a Democratic presidential incumbent vulnerable on the economy but strong on national security.

Indeed, the president gets strong marks from voters on his handling of national security and terrorism. But as poll-watcher Scott Clement noted last week in Foreign Policy's Election 2012 Channel, Obama's numbers aren't quite as strong on international affairs generally, or the war on Afghanistan in particular.

Return of Iraq

The war in Iraq was a defining issue of the last election, and Obama got high marks from voters from wanting to end the campaign there, one he never supported. But if the current violence and political dysfunction in the country continue following the recent troop withdrawal, it could quickly reemerge as a major national security headache for the Obama administration. In addition to Romney, Gingrich blasted the withdrawal this week, saying, "I think we're going to find to our great sadness that we've lost several thousand young Americans and had many thousands more wounded undertaking a project that we couldn't do." Obama's 2008 opponent, Sen. John McCain, also weighed in, telling the American Enterprise Institute's Danielle Petka, "All the gains we have achieved in Iraq are now at risk, and the enormous expenditure of blood and treasure that those gains entailed are now in jeopardy of being viewed by history as sacrifices made in vain."

What to watch for

 For the next two weeks, it's all eyes on Iowa. Paul (27.5 percent) retains a slight lead in a recent University of Iowa poll, with Gingrich (25.3 percent) a close second, Romney (17.5 percent) in third, and Perry (11.2 percent) a distant fourth.

Huntsman, who has a laser-like focus on New Hampshire, has opted out of Iowa entirely, but for the socially conservative (and bottom-dwelling) candidates Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann a strong showing in the caucuses might be their last chance to save their campaigns. Some recent polls show Santorum climbing into fourth place in Iowa, and his campaign has blanketed the state with major advertising buys. Bachmann is still drawing enthusiastic crowds, but appears unlikely to climb out of the single-digits.    

The latest from FP:

Michael Cohen speculates on just what a Ron Paul foreign policy would look like.

Scott Clement says Republican voters aren't as worried about Iran as their candidates' rhetoric might suggest.

Joshua Keating discusses Huntsman's dubious claim to have done "more than anybody" to fight China's one-child policy.

David Rothkopf looks at the 14 biggest lies of 2011.Most of the 2012 candidates -- including the president -- are guilty of several of them.

The Israel Primary:

The main foreign-policy event of the campaign week was a forum hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition, during which six of the GOP candidates attacked the administration's policies toward Israel. Congressman Ron Paul, who favors cutting U.S. aid to Israel -- as well as every other country -- was not invited.  

Current front-runner and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich led the charge, accusing the White House of "one-sided, continuing pressure that says it's always the Israelis' fault no matter how bad the other side" and promised to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem -- a controversial move approved by Congress 15 years ago but resisted by the last three administrations -- on the first day of his presidency. Gingrich also vowed to appoint former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton as his secretary of state.

Gingrich's main rival, former governor Mitt Romney, devoted much of his remarks to Iran, saying "regime change is what's going to be necessary" and promising to indict President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the crime of incitement to genocide. Romney and Gingrich both called on the White House to fire Howard Gutman, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium who set off a firestorm of controversy with a speech that suggested a distinction between anti-Jewish sentiment in the Middle East and other forms of anti-Semitism.

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, the former U.S. ambassador to China under the Obama administration, said Gutman's comments reflected a deeper strain of anti-Israel sentiment within the administration. "These aren't speeches that are cooked up at the local level and at the embassy.... They go high up within the State Department," he said.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, attempting to assuage Israeli concerns about his pledge to drastically reduce foreign aid, promised that "strategic, defensive aid" to Israel would actually increase under his administration.

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann touted her personal connections to Israel, particularly her time volunteering on a kibbutz in 1974. She also said she does "not see presently that there is a road to statehood" for the Palestinians.    

Former Senator Rick Santorum compared U.S. policies toward Islamic extremists to actions taken by Britain before World War II. "For every thug and hooligan, for every radical Islamist, he has had nothing but appeasement," he said. Romney also accused the administration of appeasement with regard to Iran.

Obama: Ask Bin Laden:

Asked by a reporter to respond to the "appeasement" charge at a press conference on Thursday, a visibly testy President Barack Obama replied, "Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22 out of 30 top al Qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement. Or whoever is left out there, ask them about that."

Obama also defended his administration's record on Iran, saying it has "systematically imposed the toughest sanctions" on Tehran and that the country is more isolated than ever.

Gay rights becomes a foreign-policy flashpoint:

The Obama administration announced a new initiative this week to use foreign aid and international diplomacy to promote gay rights abroad, for the first time identifying LGBT issues as a major U.S. foreign-policy goal. Santorum and Perry, two of the more socially conservative candidates in the race, were quick to respond.

"Obviously the administration is promoting their particular agenda in this country, and now they feel it's their obligation to promote those values not just in the military, not just in our society, but now around the world with taxpayer dollars," Santorum told reporters in Iowa.

"This administration's war on traditional American values must stop. Promoting special rights for gays in foreign countries is not in America's interests and not worth a dime of taxpayers' money," Perry said in a statement to supporters.

Perry's comments seemed to be part of his slumping campaigns attempts to reach out to socially conservative voters, and followed a TV ad in which the candidate lamented "there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school."

Huntsman backtracks on climate:

Huntsman, widely viewed as the moderate in the race despite a very conservative governing record, has distinguished himself from most of the candidates in the field by openly supporting the notion that human activity is causing climate change. "To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy," he tweeted in August. But the candidate seemed to backtrack on that position in a speech to the Heritage Foundation this week, in which he argued that there "questions about the validity" of climate science and that there's "not enough information right now to be able to formulate policies" on global warming.

Huntsman joins Gingrich, Romney, and Paul in the group of candidates who once allowed for the human factor in climate change but have changed their tune when running for president.

What to watch for:

The candidates meet for two debates in Iowa this week, the first on Saturday night in Des Moines on ABC, the second on Thursday in Sioux City on Fox News. With Gingrich still leading the polls, expect other candidates to go on the attack.

On Monday, Gingrich and Huntsman will go head-to-head in a Lincoln-Douglas style debate on foreign policy and national security at New Hampshire's St. Anselm College. Gingrich, who has been openly critical of the format and moderating of previous debates (particularly when he was shunted to the side, before becoming a front-runner), has repeatedly expressed his desire for Lincoln-Douglas debates and has said he will challenge Obama to seven of them if he wins the nomination. Gingrich may be hoping that giving Huntsman a prominent platform may help him take moderate votes away from Romney in New Hampshire, where the former Massachusetts governor is still leading. Romney has declined Gingrich's invitation for a one-on-one Lincoln-Douglas debate.

The latest from FP:

Despite the hype surrounding this week's Jewish coalition event, pollwatcher Scott Clement says Israel won't actually matter all that much in next year's election.

Michael Cohen wonders why Obama is trying so hard to avoid the label "apologist-in-chief."

On Passport, Joshua Keating looks at an FP cover story by Gingrich from 2003 and the candidates' ambitious plans for their "first day in office."

This week, Foreign Policy launched its new Election 2012 channel, devoted to following the race for the White House and the politics of foreign policy. It's an exclusive, comprehensive look at how the candidates view the world -- and how the world factors into the U.S. political conversation. With foreign-policy profiles of all the candidates, weekly columns from the Washington Post's Behind the Numbers team and Michael A. Cohen, the latest from our lineup of bloggers, and this weekly newsletter -- featuring the latest highlights (and lowlights) from the campaign trail -- it's one-stop shopping for a global look at the U.S. election. Sign up here to have it delivered straight to your inbox every Friday morning.

South Carolina showdown

After a long series of debates focused on the economy in which international issues factored only peripherally, the candidates finally met for their first event devoted solely to foreign policy and national security in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on Saturday, Nov. 12. At the debate, co-sponsored by CBS News and the National Journal, candidates squared off on Iran, Israel, China, and the war in Afghanistan.

The sharpest difference between the candidates came over the question of foreign aid -- particularly to "difficult" countries like Pakistan. Rick Perry said the foreign aid budget under his administration would "start at zero" and countries would then be judged on their policies. Newt Gingrich agreed, asking why the United States would aid a country that "hid bin Laden for at least six years."

Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann disagreed, noting Pakistan's nuclear capabilities and the importance of maintaining a basic level of cooperation with the country's government. Santorum later accused his opponents of "pandering to an anti-foreign aid element out there."  

In the end, pundits generally scored the debate as a victory for Mitt Romney, who managed the task of "not making any gaffes and otherwise looking presidential," as one GOP insider put it.

At FP, Cohen summed up the not-so-great debate and Daniel Drezner gave grades.

The Cain Train(wreck)

Following the Nov. 12 debate, during which Herman Cain managed to exceed very low expectations by appearing somewhat in command of the issues, the former pizza tycoon had a rough week on the campaign trail. First there was a torturous interview with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel during which Cain appeared not only unsure of his position on the Obama administration's policies in Libya, but unsure of what actually happened there. In the same interview, he suggested that an attack on Iran wouldn't be practical because "It's very mountainous." When asked by a reporter later if his Libya response demonstrated a lack of knowledge of foreign policy, he simply replied "9-9-9"? (Maybe he meant "nein, nein, nein"?) He also told one of the Journal Sentinel's reporters, "I'm not supposed to know anything about foreign policy. Just thought I'd throw that out.… I want to talk to commanders on the ground."

Cain followed up this performance with an appearance at Miami's famed Café Versailles, an important gathering place for Cuban exiles in the city, during which he asked, "How do you say 'delicious' in Cuban?" and also made it clear that he had never heard of the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which has been in place to handle Cuban immigration for more than a decade.

Not surprisingly, Cain's campaign canceled an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader after the paper insisted on videotaping the conversation.  

Read FP's exclusive profile of Cain's foreign policy here.

The Gingrich surge

After weeks on the margins of the race, Gingrich seems to be riding something of a surge, climbing above 20 percent for the first time in two polls released this week. Republican voters still seem to be searching for a conservative alternative to Romney, and with Cain floundering, the former speaker of the House appears to be taking advantage. The boom may be driven by Gingrich's perceived strength on national security. Gingrich got strong marks for his performance in Saturday's debate: Democratic voters polled by National Journal actually judged him the winner, and in a Fox News poll, Republican voters said Gingrich was the candidate they trusted most with nuclear weapons.

Read FP's exclusive profile of Gingrich's foreign policy here.

Will Jon Huntsman have his moment?

Huntsman is still polling in the single digits, but the former Utah governor and ambassador has launched a major media blitz in New Hampshire, hoping that his brand of competent realism will sooner or later catch on. And when it comes to foreign policy, Huntsman is in his element: He has attacked his rivals, accusing Romney of "total pandering" for his hawkish rhetoric on China. Huntsman is somewhat more aggressive when it comes to Iran, telling CNN's Piers Morgan this week that "sanctions aren't going to have much of an impact" on the country and that "it's likely we're going to have a conversation with Israel at some point" about other ways to stop Tehran's nuclear program.

Read FP's exclusive profile of Huntsman's foreign policy here.

Obama in Asia

The president is touring the Pacific this week, with stops in Hawaii, Australia, and Indonesia. On his trip, Obama is promoting a new base for U.S. Marines in Australia and a new Pacific Rim free trade agreement, both initiatives likely aimed at responding to an emergent Chinese military and economic threat. The president's comments abroad have made their way into the campaign as well. The president noted in an interview in Hawaii that the U.S. government had been "a little bit lazy … over the last couple of decades" in promoting the United States as a destination for international investment.

A Perry ad released on Nov. 16 inferred that the president had been referring to the American people as lazy. "That's what our president thinks is wrong with America? That Americans are lazy? That's pathetic," Perry says in the commercial aired in New Hampshire.

Read FP's exclusive profile of Obama's foreign policy here.

Looking ahead

On Tuesday, Nov. 22, the candidates will meet for another foreign-policy debate, this one in Washington, D.C. With Gingrich beginning to surge in the polls, other candidates -- particularly Perry and Cain -- who have seen their campaigns hobbled by recent gaffes may be on the attack. FP's crack Election 2012 reporters will be in attendance, covering the debate from all angles.

Wednesday, Nov. 23, is the deadline for the congressional "supercommittee" to find $1.2 trillion dollars in deficit reductions. If the committee fails, it could trigger massive cuts to defense spending. Conservative groups -- including this week's debate hosts, the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation -- have issued a statement on the potential cuts, saying, "The future of America's national security hangs in the balance." Defense spending is sure to be a major topic in Tuesday's discussion.

The latest from FP's Election 2012 channel:

Cohen argues that, surprisingly, Democrats have become the party of national security. But with a lousy economy, is it enough to propel Obama to victory?

David Rothkopf thinks so. After watching Saturday's debate, he listed 10 reasons why Obama will get a second term.

James Traub wonders just who Republicans think America's friends are.

Drezner said conservatives shouldn't despair about the GOP field's weakness on foreign- policy issues. A non-despairing Peter Feaver responded.

Following Cain's tortured Libya answer, Drezner declared a Herman Cain Mercy Rule in effect, vowing to stop writing about the candidate. [We'll see how long that lasts. -Ed.]

From Shadow Government's loyal opposition, Michael Magan urges the GOP candidates to reconsider their blanket opposition to foreign aid.

Sen. Lindsey Graham told The Cable's Josh Rogin that the candidates need to "step up their game" on foreign policy.