McCain's foreign policy expertise is conventional wisdom. Actually McCain was in a position to learn and gain experience. But that does not mean that McCain was a very good student.

McCain has surrounded himself with the fanatical neocons who gave us Iraq, such as his chief foreign policy adviser, Randy Schunneman. McCain's views foreign policy through an ideological lens because that is easy for him to understand. All the stamps on his passport have not changed his predictable, bellicose knee jerk nationalism.