Letters to the Editor
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I will actually cut Huckabee a teeny tiny bit of slack on this one
Look, folks, senior government officials, Presidential candidates, four-star generals and what-not are not well-informed and capable of coming up with pithy off-the-cuff responses to world events because they're highly intelligent and well-informed. They're capable of coming across as well-informed because most of them have a bureaucratic apparatus that is carefully feeding them immaculately-put-together "information memoranda" and "talking points." It's actually kind of hard *not* to come across as well-informed when so many people are going to such great lengths to collect information for you and condense it into easily digestible factoids.
The fact that Huckabee hadn't heard about the NIE points to some serious shortcomings among his senior campaign staff. What this maybe tells us is that his recent movements to the front of the campaign pack, and the increased scrutiny resulting therefrom, has outpaced his campaign's ability to provide adequate staffing.
Now, if he gets asked again about the NIE and can't come up with an intelligent answer by then, we know that his campaign staff is either incompetent or he is. Or both.