Yes, he made a cute joke with a flip answer. It’d make a great bit on Leno. Public servants who represent the country in diplomatic situations don’t get a free pass, though.

I’m not even into speech writing, but I’ll give it a shot:
“As president, I will not rule out military force as an option to eliminate a clear and present danger to the US or its allies. Military force, up to and including the use of nuclear weapons, carries grave consequences which will be given due consideration before force is chosen. However, should a clear and present threat arise, I will not hesitate to use every means at my disposal to remove this threat.”

See, that wasn’t so hard. You satisfy the hawks who don’t want us to go isolationist, and you placate the peacemongers by reassuring them that you won’t bust out the navy every time some tinpot dictator makes faces at you on TV. I’m sure McCain got an earful from his handlers after that little (and it was little) incident.

Foreign policy was based on their views on Iraq mostly. “Immediate withdrawal” is a terrible policy, for example. I did think about giving Obama another point for being consistently against the war, which I think would have been an ok policy, but consistency is another category. Extra point to McCain and Guiliani b/c they’ve talked extensively and intensively about these issues so I got the sense they thought the issue important. Things like trade, immigration and climate treaties are subsumed in the other categories.

Also – Obama just scored the XKCD nomination.

Also – Edwards and Guiliani are dropping out.

An Obama vs. McCain election would be very interesting indeed.