Steve Chapman hears Joe Biden ask a decent question:
At each of his four stops today, there was a moment when he got the attention of his audience. It came when he noted, ruefully, that he’s often mentioned as a possible secretary of state in a Democratic administration. “I have a rhetorical question for you,” he said in Algona. “Are you prepared to vote for anybody for president who isn’t capable of being secretary of state?” He went on: “If you’re not capable of being secretary of state, are you capable of being president in 2008?”
Now obviously the Secretary of State is, in these post-Kissinger times, somewhat akin to being the chief Presidential envoy. But since the President needs some, perhaps many, of the skills traditionally associated with being Secretary of State – including, but not limited to, a sensitivity to international opinion and an appreciation of the importance of language, Biden’s question is not so unreasonable.
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