Will the Paris Incident Affect the U.S. Presidential Race?

At the moment, there is a question if the U.S. presidential candidates will be affected by the incident in Paris. It seems that the answer is yes, as they now try to focus their message on it. Republican candidates use the incident to show President Obama’s lack of leadership. They have already taken early steps during the Sunshine Summit held in Orlando last Friday. Many people in the audience were startled by the news that there was a tragedy occurring in Europe when Blaise Ingoglia, state party head, requested for a moment of silence. Other Republican presidential candidates had their messages revised, re-focusing their script to show that the current administration, which is led by a Democrat, had made mistakes.

Varied reactions

Jim Gilmore, who was a former governor of Virginia said that he was on the plane when he revised his speech, thinking that the audience would want to know his experience as governor when the Pentagon was attacked in 9/11. He said that he thought that the incident in Paris is similar to what happened in the U.S. in 2001.

John Kasich, the governor of Ohio said that he did not want to do a blame game or dwell on political criticism but still thought that what happened in Paris was a consequence of what the U.S. as a nation was not willing to do, and asked that the country should have a coordinated response to the request of NATO-member nations.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky took a different approach and correlated the event in Paris to the immigration program of President Obama and put a dig on Marco Rubio. He said that the U.S. should be very cautious about who comes to the U.S. as a student, as visitor or as an immigrant.

Carly Fiorina delivered the sharpest criticism during the summit, saying that the strifes currently happening within the country, in the Middle East and in Paris were results of the policies made by the current administration.

Still, the Middle East policy of the United States had been part of the campaign speeches of Republican candidates for months. It just gained new focus because of what happened in Paris. Others see it as the ploy to defeat the leading Democratic candidate, Hilary Clinton.

Reaction from the Democrats

The incident in Paris also entered the debate of the Democratic candidates, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton on Saturday in Iowa.

Foreign policy was not a major focus of the campaign rhetoric among the Democrats. What they are focused on are issues on criminal justice, affordable college education and income inequality.

For now, the incident in Paris definitely shifted the election focus on foreign policy. However, voting in the primaries is still several months away, so it is still too early to predict if this will stay, although at the moment, it seems that it will be the main issue for both parties.

Image Copyright: vectorscore / 123RF Stock Photo