Unlike many of my cohorts, I happen to be a left-leaning independent. That means I’m the one who has to cover the Democratic Debates and I must admit it was the most boring political event I’ve ever seen. It made me actually miss having Jim Webb on stage constantly complaining about not getting enough time.
One question piqued my interest right when I was about to nod off. It was a question about how to screen Syrian refugees that are going to be coming to the country. Hillary Clinton was given the opportunity to answer this question which is equivalent to hanging curve ball up and over the plate. She should have hit a home run. Instead, she evaded. She spent a lot of time explaining that she things we should definitely screen refugees, then went on a strange tangent about Russia unveiling a secret nuclear drone submarine.
What she didn’t say was how she would actually screen the refugees. There are so many great answers possible that could have been home runs but she decided to bunt the ball out of bounds. This is why I don’t like watching Democratic debates. Other than Bernie Sanders, the candidates always fail to address the questions properly.
Here’s the question and the “answer”:
DICKERSON: Secretary Clinton let me ask you a question from Twitter which has come in and this is a question on this issue of refugees. The question is, with the U.S. preparing to absorb Syrian refugees, how do you propose we screen those coming in to keep citizens safe?
CLINTON: I think that is the number one requirement. I also said that we should increase numbers of refugees. The administration originally said 10. I said we should go to 65, but only if we have as careful a screening and vetting process as we can imagine, whatever resources it takes. I do not want us to in any way inadvertently allow people who wish us harm to come into our country. But I want to say a quick word about what Senator Sanders and then Governor O’Malley said. We do have to take a hard look at the defense budget, and we do have to figure out how we get ready to fight the adversaries of the future, not the past. But we have to also be very clear that we do have continuing challenges. We’ve got challenges in the South China Sea because of what China is doing in building up these military installations. We have problems with Russia. Just the other day, Russia allowed a television camera to see the plans for a drone submarine that could carry a tactical nuclear weapon. So we’ve got to look at the full range and then come to some decisions about having more streamlined and focused defense budget.
Update: Here’s a video that discusses this very issue.