On December 3^rd the future of the United States got a little brighter. The improvement came with Herman Cain’s no más moment regarding the Republican nomination. One distraction down, two more to go- yes, Michele Bachman and Rick Perry

Herman Cain proved more than once that he is unprepared to hold a conversation about current events, let alone set a domestic agenda and guide foreign policy as our president. Cain’s favored broad-strokes approach is usually code for ignorance in a subject. We are better off without him.

The other two that need to go are Bachmann and Perry. 

Michele Bachmann’s response to the violation of British sovereignty at its Iranian embassy is to call for the closing of the American embassy. Scary. This woman serves on the House Select Committee on Intelligence and she does not know that we have no embassy in Iran?

Bachmann’s staff did claim that she “…was speaking in the hypothetical, that if she was President of the United States and if we had an embassy in Iran, she would have taken the same actions as the British.” So, to be clear, if she was Jimmy Carter in 1979, she would have done what Carter did. OK.

Rick Perry is just as unqualified for the presidency. He has called for, among other troubling things, the overthrow of Iran’s government and the deployment of US troops on Mexican soil to fight the drug war. The specific policy is not necessarily troubling. It is the manner in which he has arrived at the policy. When you figure that out, let me know.

Rather than a series of well thought-out positions, Perry appears to be reading a script. He would implement a no-fly zone over Syria without asking for UN involvement and even questions the wisdom of continued US funding of the international organization. 

Here we have a man that wants to stay involved in Iraq (but not Afghanistan), wants to implement a no-fly zone over Syria, send troops into Mexico and overthrow the Iranian government. Where has he been this last decade? This guy is definitely not paying attention.

The remaining candidates in the Republican field are hardly in step with each other. They do, however, give the impression that their positions are elaborate, nuanced, and stem from knowledge and experience in history and politics. This is extremely important.

If we agree on the facts, then what follows is an informed debate on how to proceed. This should be the American political reality- where everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but no one is entitled to their own facts.

Because of the economy, the prospect of President Obama losing his bid for re-election is quite real. I take great comfort in knowing that the opposing field has begun shedding its uninformed ideologues.  Perry and Bachmann need to go next. That way, after 2012, we will be less likely to antagonize Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, invade Mexico or close embassies that are already closed.