John Taylor: Biden Implies McCain Would Be Prudent Choice

It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.

Here’s how that worked the first time. President Kennedy met Nikita Khrushchev at Vienna in 1961 and performed poorly enough that, some historians believe, the Soviets thought they could put nuclear missiles in Cuba aimed at the United States and get away with it.

Kennedy is justifiably praised for his handling of the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962, the closest the superpowers ever came to a nuclear war. But had Richard Nixon taken office in 1961, would the Russians have tested him as they did Kennedy? Or would the world have had the blessing of skipping 1962’s brush with annihilation? Since Biden raised the issue expressly in terms of Sen. Obama’s inexperience, here’s the essence of what he’s saying: Obama’s election could invite a crisis the world might otherwise avoid.

Another dimension of Biden’s gaffe is the recklessness of comparing Obama to Kennedy. War hero, son of a U.S. ambassador, and a member of House or Senate for 13 years, Kennedy was an experienced leader who was steeped in the culture and principles of the Cold War. Obama’s experience doesn’t begin to compare, which deepens the risk the world would run should Biden’s mettle-testing crisis really occur.