Today's transition hot topic is the rumor that the President-Elect is considering Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State and that the two of them have met in Chicago to discuss it.
Coming right after the buzz about her as Senate Major Leader, this seems to be a fork in the road for the former First Lady. Does she best keep her presidential hopes alive by devoting herself to domestic issues or foreign policy?
It may be a close call. In the immediate future, the economy will be front and center on the national agenda, but if any Obama initiatives fail (and some almost certainly will), should the once and future candidate risk taking the heat for them as legislative overseer? As the original proponent of "a vast right-wing conspiracy" a decade ago, how effective would she be in reaching across the aisle for bipartisanship?
As Secretary of State, Clinton would be the face of America interacting with world leaders, but it would be President Obama's policy and, while there might less glory in it, the position would strengthen her future claims about experience against any upstart political opponent in 2016.
If Obama offers her the position, it would be tempting and, for the rest of us, fascinating to see Bill Clinton traveling the world in the role of an upgraded Denis Thatcher.
Showing posts with label American foreign policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American foreign policy. Show all posts
Friday, November 14, 2008
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
No Traction for McCain on the High Road
By all measures, Barack Obama won by a wide margin tonight's debate, which was focused on issues, with no mention of Sarah Palin or the smears she has been spreading out on the McCain campaign's low road.
For the first hour, the Republican candidate's demeanor consisted of an odd Uriah Heep cringe with a cajoling, almost imploring tone suggesting that McCain was trying very hard to project sincerity in his prescriptions for the economy. Only in the final thirty minutes, in the segment on foreign policy, did he stand tall and sound confidently presidential.
Once again, as in his refusal to look at or address Obama directly in the first debate, there was a dismissive attitude, reflected in his finger-pointing reference to "that one" as he criticized Obama's vote on an energy bill.
Substantively, Obama was crisp and responsive in outlining what he would do about the economy, but seemed more defensive than he needed to be in countering McCain's charges that his statements on Pakistan reflected inexperience.
But the net effect tonight was to reinforce Obama's image as presidential and forward-looking while underscoring McCain's age and the weight of the Bush years that he is carrying in the campaign.
In a pre-debate CNN poll today, 55 percent of registered voters said that Obama "cares more about people like you," while 35 percent said McCain cares more than Obama. On the question of who has a clearer plan to solve the country's problems, Obama held a 15-point lead over McCain, 48 to 33 percent.
When it was over, Obama's advantage in the CNN instant polling had widened on the crucial questions of leadership.
Tomorrow, McCain and Palin will be back out on the low road, dispensing more of the dirt of the last week, but voters worried about their jobs and their homes are not likely to want to wallow in it.
For the first hour, the Republican candidate's demeanor consisted of an odd Uriah Heep cringe with a cajoling, almost imploring tone suggesting that McCain was trying very hard to project sincerity in his prescriptions for the economy. Only in the final thirty minutes, in the segment on foreign policy, did he stand tall and sound confidently presidential.
Once again, as in his refusal to look at or address Obama directly in the first debate, there was a dismissive attitude, reflected in his finger-pointing reference to "that one" as he criticized Obama's vote on an energy bill.
Substantively, Obama was crisp and responsive in outlining what he would do about the economy, but seemed more defensive than he needed to be in countering McCain's charges that his statements on Pakistan reflected inexperience.
But the net effect tonight was to reinforce Obama's image as presidential and forward-looking while underscoring McCain's age and the weight of the Bush years that he is carrying in the campaign.
In a pre-debate CNN poll today, 55 percent of registered voters said that Obama "cares more about people like you," while 35 percent said McCain cares more than Obama. On the question of who has a clearer plan to solve the country's problems, Obama held a 15-point lead over McCain, 48 to 33 percent.
When it was over, Obama's advantage in the CNN instant polling had widened on the crucial questions of leadership.
Tomorrow, McCain and Palin will be back out on the low road, dispensing more of the dirt of the last week, but voters worried about their jobs and their homes are not likely to want to wallow in it.
Friday, August 29, 2008
McCain's Busted Flush
The Republican nominee played the gender card today, a sure sign that he is holding a weak hand.
In picking Sarah Palin, Republican masterminds may be shrewdly reckoning to please the Religious Right while also peeling off some disaffected Hillary Clinton voters.
Wrong. Gov. Palin is no doubt a future political star, but Clinton Democrats would have to be far gone to be influenced by a woman on McCain's ticket who is a model for the pro-life, guns-for-everybody poster. Meanwhile, by selecting the recently seated 44-year-old governor of a small state to back up their aging candidate, Republicans are folding the Obama-is-inexperienced card, the red-phone call at 3 AM card, the no-foreign policy experience card and a whole deck of Obama-isn't-ready attacks.
Ironically, as the Democrats filled out their ticket with experience and judgment, the McCain team is opting for an attractive but ill-prepared and ludicrously inappropriate choice that will be seen as akin to George W. Bush nominating Harriet Meiers to the Supreme Court.
In picking Sarah Palin, Republican masterminds may be shrewdly reckoning to please the Religious Right while also peeling off some disaffected Hillary Clinton voters.
Wrong. Gov. Palin is no doubt a future political star, but Clinton Democrats would have to be far gone to be influenced by a woman on McCain's ticket who is a model for the pro-life, guns-for-everybody poster. Meanwhile, by selecting the recently seated 44-year-old governor of a small state to back up their aging candidate, Republicans are folding the Obama-is-inexperienced card, the red-phone call at 3 AM card, the no-foreign policy experience card and a whole deck of Obama-isn't-ready attacks.
Ironically, as the Democrats filled out their ticket with experience and judgment, the McCain team is opting for an attractive but ill-prepared and ludicrously inappropriate choice that will be seen as akin to George W. Bush nominating Harriet Meiers to the Supreme Court.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Obama Beyond the Sound Bites
After eight years of Bush-Cheney bluster and the promise of a regular-guy version from John McCain, the prospect of a president with more than a sound-bite view of American foreign policy was raised today in Fareed Zarakia's extended CNN interview with Barack Obama.
The Democratic candidate proposed to "bring back the kind of foreign policy that characterized the Truman administration with Marshall and Acheson and Kennan but also characterized to a large degree the first President Bush with people like Scowcroft and Powell and Baker...a fairly clear-eyed view of how the world works, and recognized that it is always in our interests to engage, to listen, to build alliances--to understand what our interests are, and to be fierce in protecting those interests, but to make sure that we understand it's very difficult for us to, as powerful as we are, to deal with all these issues by ourselves.
"We need to show leadership...through pulling people together wherever we can. There are going to be times where we have to act unilaterally to protect our interests. And I always reserve the right to do that, should I be commander in chief."
On the overriding issue of Islamic extremism, Obama said he would "hunt down those who would resort to violence to move their agenda, their ideology forward. We should be going after al Qaeda and those networks fiercely and effectively.
"But what we also want to do is to shrink the pool of potential recruits. And that involves engaging the Islamic world rather than vilifying it, and making sure that we understand that not only are those in Islam who would resort to violence a tiny fraction of the Islamic world, but that also, the Islamic world itself is diverse.
"And that lumping together Shia extremists with Sunni extremists, assuming that Persian culture is the same as Arab culture, that those kinds of errors...result in us not only being less effective in hunting down and isolating terrorists, but also in alienating what need to be our long-term allies on a whole host of issues."
The Republican spin machine will doubtlessly characterize that nuanced attitude toward American power in a complex and dangerous world as naïveté, weakness and vacillation. If voters believe that, we could be in for four more years of disastrous Neo-Con certainty, mock macho and isolation from the rest of the world.
The Democratic candidate proposed to "bring back the kind of foreign policy that characterized the Truman administration with Marshall and Acheson and Kennan but also characterized to a large degree the first President Bush with people like Scowcroft and Powell and Baker...a fairly clear-eyed view of how the world works, and recognized that it is always in our interests to engage, to listen, to build alliances--to understand what our interests are, and to be fierce in protecting those interests, but to make sure that we understand it's very difficult for us to, as powerful as we are, to deal with all these issues by ourselves.
"We need to show leadership...through pulling people together wherever we can. There are going to be times where we have to act unilaterally to protect our interests. And I always reserve the right to do that, should I be commander in chief."
On the overriding issue of Islamic extremism, Obama said he would "hunt down those who would resort to violence to move their agenda, their ideology forward. We should be going after al Qaeda and those networks fiercely and effectively.
"But what we also want to do is to shrink the pool of potential recruits. And that involves engaging the Islamic world rather than vilifying it, and making sure that we understand that not only are those in Islam who would resort to violence a tiny fraction of the Islamic world, but that also, the Islamic world itself is diverse.
"And that lumping together Shia extremists with Sunni extremists, assuming that Persian culture is the same as Arab culture, that those kinds of errors...result in us not only being less effective in hunting down and isolating terrorists, but also in alienating what need to be our long-term allies on a whole host of issues."
The Republican spin machine will doubtlessly characterize that nuanced attitude toward American power in a complex and dangerous world as naïveté, weakness and vacillation. If voters believe that, we could be in for four more years of disastrous Neo-Con certainty, mock macho and isolation from the rest of the world.
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