Who is saying GOP candidates have a grasp of national security issues that “would embarrass a middle-schooler”? None other than long-time Republican and former US defense secretary  Robert Gates who has served under eight presidents. “People are out there making threats and promises that are totally unrealistic, totally unattainable.”

“In some cases, the things they’re saying they’re going to do are unconstitutional or merely against the law and others are, from a budgetary standpoint, inconceivable, and so it seems to be that the press has not hammered hard enough and been relentless in saying, ‘How the hell are you going to do that?’”

So they’re getting away with it.

No one wants to admit how difficult it would be to build that wall at the Mexican border or how we’d actually defeat Syria, let alone how much anything will cost. And they’re not being questioned on how outlandish proposals would actually work.