Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to explain Thursday the remarks of presidential candidate Herman Cain, who said knowing "who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan" wouldn't help create jobs.
In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Cain said that he wasn't worried about “knowing who is the head of some of these small insignificant states around the world” because if he was elected president, he would be able to read briefing papers and be in regular contact with staff about world affairs.
“When I get ready to go visit that country, I’ll know who it is,” he said, “but until then, I want to focus on the big issues that we need to solve.”
Karzai was asking the secretary of State about the interview when reporters entered the room for a press briefing. Clinton replied that Cain was "a former pizza company executive."
“Is he that?” Karzi replied.
“Oh, yes. He started something called Godfather’s Pizza,” Clinton said.
Clinton then turned to the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, and said that Karzai had seen "a news clip about how Mr. Cain had said I don’t even know the names of all these presidents of all these countries, you know, like whatever…" at which point Karzai interjected, "All the 'stans whatever."
But the Afghan president seemed unfazed by Cain's remarks, laughing and then saying that while the comment "wasn't right … that's how politics are."
Cain's foreign policy bona fides have been a hot topic of late, both because of his interview with CBN and a subsequent one with CNN where Cain said he would consider freeing prisoners at Guantánamo Bay in exchange for an American soldier being held hostage. Cain later clarified his remarks during the GOP debate Tuesday night.
"I would have a policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists. We have to lay that principle down first," Cain said.
