Bolton to GOP: Foreign Policy Is Key

By JONATHAN WEISMAN:

Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, a foreign-policy iconoclast, will take his most tangible step toward a presidential run on Saturday when he attends a Republican presidential cattle call here.

He will bring a striking message: Republicans can’t count on a poor economy or soaring national debt to thwart President Barack Obama’s re-election. They have to focus on foreign policy.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Bolton said that by next year, the economy will have turned around enough to make Americans optimistic about the future. A year-long budget debate in Congress will have eased voter concerns about the federal deficit—especially if a budget deal is struck to dent the projected U.S. debt, as Mr. Bolton thinks is likely.

The result, he argued, is that Republican Party standard-bearers are taking the party down a dead end by keeping a relentless focus on deficits and jobs.

Instead, Mr. Bolton said, the party needs a leader to reverse what he called Mr. Obama’s “post-American” presidency, which in his view has marginalized U.S. global leadership and hampered progress on energy independence, international trade and Middle East peace.

[...]

MORE

Advertisement