President Obama took a shot at GOP presidential hopefuls on Monday, saying that if they couldn’t handle the line of questioning from CNBC moderators, then they aren’t ready for the world stage.
“Every one of these candidates says, 'Obama's weak, Putin's kicking sand in his face. When I talk to Putin, he's going to straighten out,'" Obama said during a democratic fundraiser in New York City.
"And then it turns out, they can't handle a bunch of CNBC moderators," he said. "If you can't handle those guys, I don't think the Chinese and the Russians are going to be too worried about you."
While it’s not surprising Obama interpreted what happened at the last GOP debate this way, the Republican candidates that took CNBC to task were not whining about how they were being treated, like, say, Jim Webb did about his lack of speaking time during the DNC’s first debate. Rather, they called the moderators out for all the viewers to see, demonstrating that they wouldn’t tolerate that kind of treatment. To me at least, that says that Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Marco Rubio, and Sen. Ted Cruz, for example, wouldn’t tolerate being walked all over on the world stage, much like Obama has.