Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold was one of the Senate's leading voices on foreign policy while in office, opposing the Iraq War and calling for a withdrawal from Afghanistan long before it became popular to do so. He served on the Foreign Relations Committee and had an extensive foreign policy agenda. And now that Mitt Romney has selected Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his running mate, he's concerned with the lack of foreign policy readiness on the GOP presidential ticket.
"The Romney-Ryan ticket is extremely weak when it comes to foreign policy," Feingold said in an interview with The Huffington Post. "These guys do not have a serious view or background in what's going on in the rest of the world. This is extremely important in a president and vice president."
Romney's top surrogates have been rushing to defend the ticket's foreign policy chops.
On Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another foreign policy heavyweight in the Senate, compared Romney's experience to Ronald Reagan's and criticized President Barack Obama's international agenda. Still, he had trouble coming up with foreign policy accomplishments for Ryan, simply noting that his budget policies would prevent deep cuts to the Pentagon under budget sequestration.
"I think that Mitt Romney understands our nation's challenges," McCain said on "Fox News Sunday." "He's proven that by the proposals that he's put forward, his understanding of the importance of our relationship with Israel -- which has hardly ever been worse -- his understanding of American exceptionalism, which President Obama has abandoned."The Huffington Post
Russ Feingold: Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan 'Don't Seem To Care' About Foreign Policy
Amanda Terkel
Related to this is whether Paul Ryan is ready to step up to the presidency on day one if need be, which is the only actual job qualification for a vice-president.
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