I don’t entirely disagree with King’s comments with respect to Rand Paul, but he does sell him short in a lot of ways. I agree Rand Paul is no hawk and is somewhat naive on the Islamic threat facing us, but that doesn’t mean he is an isolationist. Ever since Paul gave his big foreign policy speech, it’s been apparent to me that he is somewhere between the isolationist polices of his father and the hawkish policies of someone like John Bolton. He understands what he calls ‘radical Islam’ to a pretty good degree, but he also believes we can and should negotiate with Iran to stop them from getting nukes. That is a very naive position and ignorant of the last decade of ‘negotiations’ with Iran.
But Ted Cruz? I’ve never heard anything from Cruz to suggest he was anything other than a hawk. I think King just throws him in the mix because he hates Ted Cruz and doesn’t want to see him become president.
All of that said, there is no way I’m voting for a big government Republican like Peter King. If he is the answer then the problem is too big to be solved.