Gary Johnson didn't know about Aleppo. In an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson was asked what he would do about Aleppo if elected President. Johnson responded, “And what is Aleppo?” believing it to be a federal acronym. Interviewer Mike Barnicle paused before saying, “You’re kidding?” and began to summarize Aleppo. Johnson quickly recovered and delivered an adequate response.
If you don’t know what Aleppo is, it’s a city in Syria. Once the country’s largest city with over two million people, a thriving tourist industry, and an ancient and historic location for the Middle East in general. Now it is being fought over by Syrian government and rebel forces. Russian air strikes against rebel forces have helped create a stalemate in the fight for control of the city. Most of the city’s citizens have fled and are among the refugees searching for a safe haven to restart their lives. Thousands are still inside the city, struggling to survive on shrinking quantities of supplies. In a nutshell, that’s Aleppo.
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Gary Johnson blanked on it. That raised flags as to his competency to be President. Some have said to Johnson in subsequent interviews that his should be disqualified. Fair enough. After all, why would the American public ever elect someone, much less a President, who isn’t qualified for the job? But we have. The most stunning example: Abraham Lincoln.
What? Regardless of how much you know about him, we at least know the incredibly simple version of him as the savior of the nation during the Civil War, when we fought each other in our deadliest war ever. But Lincoln was a country lawyer, had never held an elected federal office in his life, failed in business and lost more elections than he won by the time he was President. On top of that, as the nation descended into war, he had no military experience beyond some lackluster months in the Illinois militia in the 1830s, hardly qualifying him to be commander-in-chief of over one million troops. Lincoln did not brush aside his disqualifying characteristics; he reversed them. He spent days reading military texts upon entering the White House becoming as knowledgable in strategy as any general. He made sure his Cabinet became a source of solid and quality counsel on all matters before he made final decisions. He used his wit, level-headedness and experience as a lawyer to maneuver around Washington politicians and came out on top with policies that won the war before his assassination. And this was a man who by most counts was professionally unqualified to be President and ultimately became one of the nation’s best.
Gary Johnson responded to his situation with a statement explaining why he blanked on Aleppo and elaborating his position on the Syrian and refugee issues. He apologized for not knowing up front, did not try to sweep it under the rug, gave a solid synopsis of his position and reaffirmed that he would hold daily security briefings as they have been for several administrations.
What Lincoln and Johnson both recognized is that one person cannot know everything or even tackle the role of President alone. It’s why the President has the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Cabinet of experts on all topics, foreign and domestic, in addition to numerous other experts who are consulted as situations demand. Not even Trump or Clinton would go into the White House without an advisor panel because to go in alone would be unworkable and impossible. Perhaps even more telling are the similarities between Lincoln and Johnson on how they handled their own ignorance. They did not ignore it but rather replaced it with knowledge and learned from it and were humble, traits that are incredibly desirable in a leader.
