Chuck Hagel did not make the strongest case for himself at his January 2013 confirmation hearings for Secretary of Defense. The former Nebraska Republican senator seemed at a loss to answer the easiest, most obvious questions he had to know would be thrown at him.

A well-prepared, knowledgeable nominee typically has an answer ready for his own previous controversial statements. Hagel did not. A well-prepared nominee for Secretary of Defense knows better than to discuss the policy of containment against a nuclear Iran, because in fact the policy, now as before, is to prevent that contingency, not to contain it. In Hagel’s case, someone actually had to pass him a note telling him that he’d gotten the policy wrong. He proceeded to botch it again when trying to correct himself.