Aleppogate!!!!

I don’t think Gary Johnson’s screw-up this morning is a huge deal. If you hadn’t heard, Johnson didn’t know what Aleppo was when asked about it on Morning Joe. In his defense, in a follow-up interview he demonstrated that he does have some passable knowledge of the crisis in Syria. Even more to his credit, he said, “I have to get smarter, and that’s just part of the process.” If only the other candidates were as willing to admit when they messed up and commit themselves to getting up to speed. Kudos to him.

Regardless, the flub certainly doesn’t matter to most of Johnson’s supporters. The only significance is that it might keep him from reaching the 15 percent threshold in the polls required to get into the debates. But as Allapundit notes, he probably couldn’t hit that in time anyway.

Still the response from some defenders on Twitter is interesting. For instance:

Maybe so. But this strikes me as a doubly damning defense. First, just because a populist spirit is raging across the land that causes many voters to heap scorn on knowledge, preparation, and expertise is not an excuse for saying candidates should forgo knowledge, preparation, and expertise. Second, maybe I’m just a fuddy-duddy, but I’m still the kind of guy who would prefer presidential candidates to be able to speak with precision about dire international crises with at least as much granularity and specificity as they can speak of different varieties of righteous kush.