Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) says the 2016 election is "about policy," not "personalities," and in that case, Hillary Clinton is "the most qualified" candidate because Republicans don't understand foreign policy as well as the former secretary of state does. "You have a cast of thousands on the Republican side because there's -- it's clear that many of them are reading Cliff Notes to try to figure out this dangerous world right now," McCaskill told ABC's "This Week." McCaskill said "anyone can challenge Hillary Clinton if they would like to," but -- "the reason people aren't challenging her is because of her qualifications." McCaskill described Clinton as a "champion for working families," and she said that's what the 2016 election is about. "It's not about personalities. It's not about what someone looks like or it's not about political gotcha moments. It's about policy." Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told CBS's "Face the Nation" that a Clinton presidency "would basically be another four years of Barack Obama." "To this point, I'm not seen her distinguish herself on a single issue from what the president is doing now. I think that is particularly true on foreign policy. We cannot ignore that she was the secretary of state during the first four years of the Obama presidency and has virtually no meaningful achievement to show for it. "On the contrary, whether it's the reset in Russia or our response to Benghazi or everything in between, there's -- the Obama foreign policy during the Clinton years especially as secretary of state have been a disaster for America. Today, our allies trust us less. Our enemies fear us less, and America has less influence in the world today than it did four to six years ago." Rubio said he thinks the biggest challenge for the next president will be foreign policy -- "because the most important obligation of the federal government is to keep us safe. "And today, we face threats from abroad that are multifaceted in comparison to what they were 10 or 15, 20 years ago. We face the risk of a rising China. We see the erosion of NATO's ability to blunt Putin's efforts to rewrite and relitigate the end of the Cold War in Europe. "And then we see the rise in the Middle East of both multiple radical jihadist groups, both ISIS, al Qaeda, and other affiliated groups. The world has multi -- it's a multifaceted threat." Rubio said he doesn't think the U.S. is "doing as well as we could on any of these fronts." Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat who is mulling a challenge to Clinton, told CBS's "Face the Nation" that he has "a tremendous amount of respect" for Hillary Clinton, but he thinks there should be "more than one person willing to compete for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party." "Look, this is the way I think it's supposed to work," O'Malley continued. "I believe that if you have the executive experience, the ideas that can serve our nation well and the ability to govern, you should offer your candidacy and then let the people decide." O'Malley said he expects to decide next month if he's going to officially enter the race. CNS News: McCaskill: Republicans 'Reading Cliff Notes to Try to Figure Out This Dangerous World' http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/mccaskill-republicans-reading-cliff-notes-try-figure-out-dangerous-world

• published: 20 Apr 2015
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