Democratic Presidential contender Barack Obama, still hurting from the whacking Sen Clinton and the media have given him over his national security gaffe in Monday night’s debate, issued a press release today claiming he is the most qualified of all the candidates on foreign policy.
Counting all Democrats and Republicans running for President, Obama said:
“Look, one thing I’m very confident about is my judgment in foreign policy is, I believe, better than anyone else in this race, Republican or Democrat. And I don’t base that simply on the fact that I was right on the war in Iraq. But if you look at how I approached the problem. What I was drawing on was a set of experiences that come from a life of living overseas, having family overseas, being able to see the world through the eyes of people outside our borders.”
So Obama feels he has better foreign policy judgement, more than anyone else in the presidential race, because he wasn’t in the Senate to actually vote on the Iraq War and he lived in Indonesia for four years starting when he was 10 years old? Tell that to Sen. Hillary Clinton, who rubbed elbows with world leaders for eight years as first lady and currently sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee as well as committees on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, and on Readiness and Management Support.
Obama should also flash those dubious foreign policy credentials to Sen. Joseph Biden, who is the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and sits on the subcommittee on Technology Terrorism and Homeland Security. Biden also led efforts to combat hostilities in the Balkans in the 1990s, traveling there on numerous occasions and arguing for war crimes investigations and NATO air strikes. In fact, his “lift and strike” resolution helped convince President Clinton to take action against human rights violations there.
Would Obama have the audacity to say he is more qualified than Sen. John McCain, a decorated war veteran who spent five years in a Viet Nam POW camp and later won a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, the Purple Heart, and a Distinguished Flying Cross before becoming the Navy’s liaison to the Senate in 1976?
Sen. Obama should tell New Mexico governor Bill Richardson his foreign policy judgement doesn’t measure up to his. A former Ambassador to the United Nations and staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richardson was elected to congress in 1982 and kept his keen interest in foreign policy, traveling to Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, India, North Korea, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Sudan to represent U.S. interests.
Richardson also successfully negotiated the release of American prisoners from Sudan, North Korea, and Iraq.
As Ambassador to the United Nations, Richardson represented the United States in UN proceedings regarding Palestine and the State of Israel.
Finally, just last January, he brokered a 60-day cease fire between al-Bashir and leaders of several rebel factions in Darfur.
So, Sen. Obama, who is the most qualified in the field of presidential candidates on foreign policy? Take your pick, but it certainly is not you. And all the spin from you and your supporters in the netroots, all of the revising of what foreign policy experiences means, will not alter that fact.
Sen. Obama, you’ve become product of your PR machine. You’re now actually believing your own hype and the hype of the chattering bloggers like Atrios who has followed your silly claim with an equally ludicrous one that the foreign policy establishment’s parameters of what constitutes experience have “little relationship to reality.” To you, this blogger, and most certainly others like him, avoiding a senate vote on Iraq and living overseas when you were a kid trumps military service, real diplomatic missions, and relationships with world leaders.
Who, Sen. Obama, has “little relationship to reality?”
In an age when calls for apologies follow fits of fake outrage, I’m always hesitant to call on anyone to express regret for words or deeds. But you, Sen. Obama, owe an apology to at least four presidential contenders whose foreign policy experience so surpasses yours it give new meaning to the title “freshman” in “freshman Senator.”
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For Centrist Democratic News and Opinion, visit DonkeyDigest
I have to set the record straight here since some people totally misunderstood the question.
Please go back to the question and the example cited of Sadat going to Israel. Read Sadat’s trip of 1977 and also see what preparations were made prior to the trip.
Low-level diplomacy was not issue here; some diplomatic works were already done before Sadat made his bold move.
The question was; after all the low and high level diplomatic negotiation were completed by the underlines at State Department, would the future President be willing to meet any of our enemies without a pre-condition as Sadat did, when he visited Israel?
Obama’s answer was exactly in line with the question.
It looked like Hillary didn’t even know about Sadat’s move and the role played by President Jimmy in the low and high level diplomacy to prepare for Sadat’s move.
Obama was willing to meet with any of our enemies once the groundwork was done like Sadat did.
This was not a question of preliminary diplomatic negotiations; that would have been taken care of as it was in the Sadat case, it was about our future president’s willingness to do as Sadat, Reagan, Nixon, and Kennedy did.
So far Obama is the only candidate willing to show that kind of bold leadership exemplified by Reagan, Kennedy, and Sadat.
If Hillary couldn’t understand that the question assumed that high and low-level diplomacy have been done, then we can’t really be able to help her.
No wonder she voted to authorized the war and thought that she was sending Bush to the UN. Too bad – We want sharp minds in 2008, not people that could not understand a simple question like or issue like Sadat’s trip to Israel on November 19, 1977. Sadat was the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem
Some people are shouting about Hillary’s experience and this is one prime example that her type of experience is useless to the nation at this time.
Yes. We cannot just ignore the experience question; the truth is that Hillary is running on experience and so far she has not proven that to the American public.
Hillary told us that she is running on experience so we must call her out on her ignorance of basic procedures like this.
No wonder she thought that voting to authorize the war was not actually giving Bush the power to invade, but rather the power to go to the United Nations.
Hillary does not understand that no bilateral presidential meeting/summit has ever taken place without a low and high level diplomatic groundwork. That failure to understand a simple foriegn policy issue as a presidential summit makes her unqualified to be our commander-in-chief in 2009.
She might one day give out Confidential National Security information and thought that it was just a weather tip.
Comment by Figwealor — July 25, 2007 @ 4:08 pm
Figwealor – Does Barrack Obama have superior foreign policy bona-fides than Clinton, Biden, McCain, and Richardson?
The answer is no.
[i]the truth is that Hillary is running on experience and so far she has not proven that to the American public.[/i]
She leads all in polls on the subject of exeperience. The first post debate SC poll has her up by 15. She convincing the American public more and more every day.
Comment by Centristdem — July 25, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
No one in the race has the foreign policy eperience that Bill Richardson does. When was the last time the North Koreans asked for Hillary or Barack to settle a dispute with the US?
Comment by greyhawk — July 26, 2007 @ 7:52 am
I think it’s kind of amazing that we’re seeing the media questioning someone’s foreign policy credentials, when Bush the Lesser was appointed even though the only foreign policy experience he had was knowing not to drink the water in Mexico.
Foreign Policy is just one of the areas Obama has too little experience. I’ll support the Dem Candidate no matter who is is, but I hope we get someone who knows a couple of foreign leaders. Or least knows their names.
Comment by lousyratbastard1 — July 26, 2007 @ 1:23 pm