The death of Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto just eight days before the Iowa caucuses shifted attention Thursday to how prepared the candidates would be to handle a foreign crisis.
The assassination gave Democrat Hillary Clinton an opening to tout the experience gap between her and chief rival Barack Obama, with whom she is fighting for the lead in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Clinton, who was campaigning in Iowa, talked of her long relationship not only with Bhutto but also with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who came to power during her husband’s administration.
The violence and instability in Pakistan, Clinton said, “certainly raises the stakes high for what we expect from our next president. I know from a lifetime of working to make change.”
Political analysts said Clinton, Republicans Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, and second-tier Democratic candidates Joe Biden, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, may benefit because it allows them to show off their experience in foreign policy or dealing with terrorism.
University of New Hampshire political science professor Dante Scala said the assassination and resulting unrest in Pakistan come at a time when residents of Iowa and New Hampshire are deciding whether to vote for change, embodied by Obama and Mike Huckabee, and or the experience of candidates like Clinton and McCain.
“This will certainly go along with what Clinton is talking about with experience and that you need someone who can handle a crisis like this,” Scala said.
Giuliani, who built his campaign around his leadership in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said the assassination shows that terrorism remains a serious threat, a view repeated throughout his campaign but which had been resonating less and less with the public, judging by his drooping poll numbers.
“Her death is a reminder that terrorism anywhere — whether in New York, London, Tel Aviv or Rawalpindi — is an enemy of freedom,” Giuliani said in a statement.
McCain, who is rising in the polls and hopes to steal victory from Romney in the New Hampshire primary Jan. 8, talked confidently of helping Pakistan restore order if he were president.
“I know the players, I know the individuals, and I know the best way to address this situation,” said McCain, the top Republican onthe Senate Armed Services Committee.
But the experience card may have a limited shelf life, warned University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato.
“A lot is going to happen between now and the primaries,” Sabato said. “The American public generally has a pretty short attention span for most things and certainly for political developments in foreign countries that don’t directly affect us.”
