Foreign policy "electability"

This point about the problems and dangers of debating the "electability" of Democratic presidential candidates is an important one, and I think to the extent the meme is used, it will often be tied to foreign policy.

No matter which is your favorite, I absolutely believe that every single major Democratic candidate is fully capable of effecting an effective and progressive foreign policy. While I might not agree with all the positions that will be floated over the course of the campaign, I don't think there are currently any disqualifying factors. A huge lesson from this administration is that logic and intellectual curiosity are the vital qualities for sane foreign policy -- remember when this administration had the greatest collection of foreign policy talent evah, and the brilliant grownup coalition of Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, and especially Cheney were going to guide the new president? -- and the current Democratic crop has those qualities in abundance.

The leading candidates represent an embarrassment of riches in talent, thoughtfulness, and intelligence, and any one of them should beat whatever "I was a rubber stamp for the war until, um, a couple months ago!" Republican gets the nomination.

If anything, the electability question should be this: Can a candidate who fails to recognize the problems with the Iraq war, both in theory and in practice, win a national election? I say no, and that criteria basically wipes out the "top tier" of Republican hopefuls.