One telling sign that Barack Obama�s foreign policy knowledge was his soft spot, came during the Democratic Debate in Cleveland, Ohio, back in February, when moderator Tim Russert (God, rest his soul), tossed both candidates what he would later describe as a ``jump ball�� on a foreign policy question; meaning, it was up to either candidate to take the leap and handle the hot potato. Russert�s question: ``What could either candidate tell them about Vladimir Putin�s successor?
Obama looked like a student whose teacher caught him napping, not really sure of the answer, as he gently turned his head toward Sen. Clinton, who decided to jump in and give an informed answer about Dmitry Medvedev, the presumed winner of the upcoming election that was to be held on March 2nd, saying ``that the so-called opposition was basically run out of the political opportunity to wage a campaign against Putin's hand-picked successor, and the so-called leading opposition figure spends most of his time praising Putin. ``So this is a clever but transparent way for Putin to hold on to power, Clinton went on to say, and it raises serious issues about how we're going to deal with Russia going forward.��
By the time Obama mulled over his answer, he had really nothing more to add to his opponent�s assessment, other than to say, ``well, I think Senator Clinton speaks accurately about him. He is somebody who was hand-picked by Putin.��
Words not exactly gushing with Churchillian eloquence, but Obama got by without too much embarrassment. In fact, the record will probably show Mrs. Clinton came away a little more red-faced, muffing the pronunciation of Medvedev�s name toward the end of her answer.
As the junior senator inched his way past the finish-line to claim the status of being crowned the Democratic nominee, even if in name only, Mr. Obama has since batted-down criticisms on his flip-flopping on Iraq, most notably in wavering the timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq, including his back-and-forth on how effective or ineffective the surge really has become.
Fast forward to July, 2008, and an ABC poll shows the Illinois senator's foreign policy expertise falling well short of voter�s expectations. A whopping 63 percent of the respondents, according to the poll, view John McCain more knowledgeable on world affairs; and the presumed Republican nominee tops Obama 50 to 41 percent as better able to handle an unexpected world crisis. All of which explains why this foreign tour to the Middle East and Europe becomes so critical for Obama to be taken seriously as a foreign policy statesman, almost the same way the youthful John Kennedy had to prove his credentials running against Dwight Eisenhower�s hawkish Vice President: Richard M. Nixon,
Before even touching down in Afghanistan on Saturday, critics charged Obama�s junket reeked of political posturing before ferreting out the facts and reaching his own conclusions about the war in Iraq and the best way to combat terrorism. Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman was quick to tell Fox News recently, ``He�s[Obama�s] not going to listen to (David) Petraeus. He�s not going to listen to our troops. He�s not going to listen to his own eyes with what he sees there.�
Even some European hosts were careful not to get sucked into Obama�s vacuum in using Europe as a convenient prop for political gamesmanship. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for one, expressed cynicism of Obama using Berlin�s Brandenburg Gate as a setting for one of his planned speeches, the same place where Ronald Reagan delivered his historic `` Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall�� speech in 1987.
Team Obama has since decided against using the Brandenburg Gate as a backdrop.
Another criticism already being voiced is that Obama, who plans to meet with foreign leaders, will push his own foreign policy agenda, even before being elected, a bold act that will not only be unprecedented, but runs the risk of upstaging the Bush administration, a ruse which might backfire on the Illinois senator with voters back home as being unpatriotic.
``My advice to Senator Obama, is to stick to very intimate settings with European leaders, and keep as low of a profile as he can�� said Paul Cheney, Assistant Professor of European History at the University of Chicago
Despite George Bush being so unpopular as he has been with the war in Iraq, and anti-American emotion in Europe always in full display, a big reason why Obama will likely be received with an outpouring of enthusiastic well-wishers, nevertheless, some historians, like Ronald J. Granieri, Professor of Modern European History from the University of Pennsylvania cautions Mr. Obama not to overplay his hand. . ``It is also worth noting, significant changes in the leadership of major European states, especially the election of President Sarkozy in France and Chancellor Merkel in Germany, have already led to better relationships with Washington, Professor Granieri observed, so Obama and his staff should not assume that relations are still as bad with those states as they were between 2002 and 2005.��
On the other hand, if Obama had made Charles S. Maier, Professor of History at Harvard University at the Center For European Studies, and author of ``Recasting Bourgeois Europe�� one of his 300 policy advisors ( as reported by The New York Times), which he hasn�t, the Leverett Saltonstall scholar would have advised the Illinois senator to take a hard look at the administration�s policy of deploying anti-missiles in Eastern Europe,`` a silly idea, according to Professor Maier, that came about as a result out of cold-war reflexes in our Defense Department.��
With the three major networks positioned to capture Obama�s every move, every speech, every syllable rolling from his lips, scouring for blunders and missteps, the presumed Democratic nominee is probably most concerned about not stepping on some landmines that could give Senator McCain reason to expose his soft spots.
Before leaving Washington for Afghanistan with Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, and Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, Obama said he was more interested in listening than talking. ``We have one president at a time."
If Obama does indeed stick to those words and spends more time listening to a wide range of opinions during his week long tour and biting his lip, instead of trying to woo the press and impress Europeans with his grasp of foreign policy issues, and what the best course of action for America is, while shooting down the failed policies of the present administration, the trip will likely be considered a resounding success, and more importantly, it will pad his resume with the American public as a versatile well-rounded candidate heading into the home stretch of the general election.
-Bill Lucey
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