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Lindsey Graham's Debate Face Is Priceless

by Alex Gladu

During the so-called "kiddie table" Republican debate on Tuesday night, moderator Wolf Blitzer asked candidates about their strategies to defeat ISIS. When the question was directed at Rick Santorum, the camera, fortunately, kept focused on both Santorum and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has made it a point to position himself as an expert on all things national security and defense. The camera caught Graham's exasperated face as Santorum talked about Islam — and it was the perfect expression for any conversation that Santorum is involved in.

Specifically, Blitzer asked Santorum whether or not he supports the use of ground troops to fight ISIS in countries like Iraq and Syria. Santorum answered with an interpretation of Islamic law, which made it clear that he doesn't support the use of ground troops. To be honest, it wasn't a completely outrageous answer — dare I say it made some sense — but it wasn't the answer I was expecting to hear, and it clearly wasn't the answer that Graham wanted to hear. As Santorum said...

How do we defeat [ISIS's] caliphate? Well, it's very clear in Islamic law how you do so. You take their land. You have to take land back from the caliphate — that delegitimizes the caliphate.

...Graham's face looked like this:

Santorum's explanation concluded that the best way to defeat ISIS is to continue to deploy American resources for the purposes of training Sunni Muslims in Iraq and Syria who can then, in turn, fight ISIS and delegitimize the caliphate. Although it sounds like a reasonable argument, it comes at a time when more and more Americans are starting to support the use of ground troops in the fight against ISIS.

Graham delivered such an expressive reaction to Santorum's plan that Blitzer immediately asked Graham for his own response. Wasting no time, Graham said:

You're not going to win that way, Rick. There's nobody left in Syria to train.

Sure, Graham's comeback may be a little exaggerated. But come on, his eye rolls are still the best. What's more, Graham's Santorum-shade is fitting not just in this context, but also in several other instances where Santorum has deserved some eye rolls. For example, we could have used Graham's eye roll when Santorum said that there are "far too many families" in the United States that have two working parents. Cue the shade:

We could have also used some shade when Santorum called birth control a "license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." We could have also used it when he talked about his "Second Amendment vest." Let's hear it for the new Santorum shade-throwing game.