Answering The Phone

If I have my history correct, the “red phone” or “hot line” in the White House was established after the Cuban Missile Crisis to provide a connection between Washington and the Kremlin in Moscow as a way for these two Cold War adversaries to talk to one another in a time of imminent crisis.

Hillary Clinton, in her “3 a.m. phone call” ad, has posed the question: Who would be better suited- her or a President Obama- to answer the phone during an international crisis?

For starters, the obvious answer should be: the person who is cool under pressure, steady, and calm, not reactionary, hysterical, or unpredictable.

But another factor in who of the two of them would be better to have answering the phone has come from the candidates themselves: Hillary has said she would not talk to adversaries without preconditions and layers of protocol.

Obama, on the other hand, has often said he would never be afraid or hesitant to talk with our enemies.

To me, it is far more plausible that Barack Obama could handle that 3 a.m. phone call in a strong, professional, presidential way worthy of a commander-in-chief.