The Presidential Thing to Do

As we all know, Benazir Bhutto was murdered on Thursday by a suicide bomber who managed to get a few pellets off first before he killed himself. While she knew her life would be endangered by her return to her country, it was still a horrific act.

Pakistan is one of the most dangerous places on the planet, especially as they possess nuclear weapons and the government has acted at times more in a dictatorial fashion. But at the momement, the US is forced to work with whom is in charge.

Today's WaPO has an editorial entitled "The Pakistan Test", in which it opines how the candidates, if president, would best react to the situation.

Their opinion: it was John Edwards.

THE ASSASSINATION of Benazir Bhutto presented U.S. presidential candidates with a test: Could they respond cogently and clearly to a sudden foreign policy crisis? Within hours some revealing results were in. One candidate, Democrat John Edwards, passed with flying colors.

Let's start with Mr. Edwards, who managed not only to get Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on the phone Thursday but also to deliver a strong message. The candidate said he had encouraged Mr. Musharraf "to continue on the path to democratization [and] to allow international investigators to come in and determine what happened, what the facts were." Those are words the Pakistani president needs to hear from as many Americans as possible.

Now to set the record straight, JRE called our embassy to speak to the ambassador to express his concern. President Musharraf called him back almost right away.

People forget that John Edwards was on the intelligence committee when he was in the Senate, so he knew some of these folks and which diplomatic channels to take.

Another reason why I support John Edwards as President. When he is president, I will sleep easier since he obviously knows what to do as a leader.

(h/t to Vox Populi at MyDD)