A new poll out from Politico shows pretty conclusively that across a range of issues facing American foreign policy, the public is very skeptical of deeper American involvement. Here's a look at the share of the public giving hawkish answers to the four big questions they asked:
At the same time, the Republican Party — which had lost its longtime advantage on foreign policy issues in the late-Bush and early-Obama years — is back on top. By a margin of 39 to 32 the GOP is the party that's more trusted with the country's foreign policy.
That points to an optimal political strategy for Republicans of complaining loudly and repeatedly about Obama's lack of leadership in various foreign crises without saying too much in detail about what they would do specifically. In other words, what the GOP is already doing. Most people, it turns out, don't have detailed and fully coherent ideas about the whole range of public policy issues so they can turn toward the more hawkish party without embracing any particular hawkish ideas.