Foreign Policy's Passport Blog ran a quick analysis of the discussion of global issues (or lack thereof) in last night's Republican YouTube debate. There's nothing surprising about this:

• Iraq: 10
  
• China: 5 (Tancredo and Hunter only)
  
• Afghanistan: 3
  
• Europe: 1 (a complaint from Giuliani about subsidies)
  
• Iran: 1
  
• Russia: 0
  
• India: 0
  
• North Korea: 0
  
• Proliferation: 0
  
• Nuclear: 0
  
• Diplomacy: 0
  
• Sudan or Darfur: 0
  
• Pakistan: 0
  
• United Nations: 0

It's especially unsurprising because the Republican primary campaign has avoided international issues almost completely. The primary campaign is about the base, and the Republican base is a group of people for whom global issues is often a taboo subject. While the Democrats find themselves debating whether to bomb Pakistan and spotlighting diplomacy efforts, the Republicans are content to support the Iraq war, poor mouth Europe and reap the benefits of xenophobia.