Herman Cain spotlights "friends," "danger" across globe

Herman Cain is out with a map explaining his "assessment of our key country relationships" that is drawing mockery on the internet for making distinctions between a "friend and ally," a "friend and partner" and just a plain old "friend," among other designations.

As you can see above, the map deems Canada an "ally," and Mexico a "partner," while Brazil neither one; it calls Russia a "rival" while China is a "competitor." (You can see a bigger version of the map on page 2 of this document, posted to Cain's website.) The map ignores Europe other than the United Kingdom ("our special relationship") and designates two countries - Egypt and Pakistan - with the words "danger and opportunity." The three "adversary regimes" listed are Venezuela, Iran and North Korea.

Cain, who laid out his foreign policy positions in a speech Monday evening, has struggled throughout the campaign on foreign policy issues, suggesting at times that he doesn't need a broad knowledge of international issues.

"I'm ready for the 'gotcha' questions and they're already starting to come," Cain said in October. "And when they ask me, 'Who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?' I'm going to say you know, 'I don't know. Do you know?' And then I'm going to say, 'How's that going to create one job?' I want to focus on the top priorities of this country. That's what leaders do."

Earlier this month he stumbled badly when asked about Libya, at one point asking if Mr. Obama supported the uprising and suggesting he was having a hard time articulating an answer because he has "all this stuff twirling around in my head." 

Cain used a Facebook visualization of "friendships" across the globe as his basis for the map, which the Cain document says "illustrates how entrepreneurship and freedom can light up the world with friendship."

Cain includes more information about his views on the first page of the document, where he vows to "re-examine our role within the United Nations," "secure our North American neighborhood," "stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons" and "fix border security - for real." He writes about his "vision for foreign policy" in broad terms, saying, for example, that "my pragmatic and principled approach to addressing complex world issues places the U.S.A. at the top."

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