Reply #27: Link to the transcript [View All]

QUESTIONER: Hi. My name is Nancy Lieberman. Is there any Republican candidate for president or former Republican potential candidate for president which has a foreign policy consistent -- philosophy consistent with your own or even close to your own?

HAGEL: Well, to be fair to these candidates, they've been put in these awkward formats. It's kind of like the poor man's Gong Show. (Laughter.) And I would far prefer -- and I think most Americans if you're interested -- to give each candidate five minutes and say, "Okay, Senator or Governor, Congressman, tell us what your foreign policy is and would be for the next four years." Take any dimension of that or, "What is your policy regarding America's competitive role in the world, our declining dollar? Should we intervene? Should we not intervene? How do you stop that? How can you stop it?" And so on and so on.

Whether these glancing blows, smart-ass, kind of glib answers that a bunch of wise-ass consultants get together and they put in the minds of all these candidates -- "Now, you want to get this one in. This will be a zinger on old Mitt. Wait until he gets that one." (Laughter.) You know, and, "Here's a good one for Rudy. You know, ask him about all the wives," and so on. (Laughter.)

I mean -- and so America and the world is sitting out there -- "Well, I don't know. Does that have anything to do with what the next set of challenges are?"

And so I -- to your question about who is in my opinion closest to my foreign policy, John McCain is the only one that I -- of the candidates that I've worked closely with -- of the Republicans. Now, Joe Biden -- I'm very close to Joe Biden's philosophy about foreign policy. I suppose of all the candidates out there, including McCain, I'm probably closer to Joe Biden's. And I think Biden would be a very good president. I think Joe Biden would be a very good secretary of State.