baracking the casbah
by Sandra Kinne
Published: July 24, 2008
They like him. They really like him.
Much to the frustration of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, as per ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, his Democratic counterpart is wowing foreign dignitaries and foreign policymakers on his 10-day trip to the Middle East and Europe.
Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is off to a positive and productive start as he attempts to strengthen his foreign policy credentials. It’s hard not to be when the Prime Minister of Iraq agrees with your plan for American troop withdrawal. Sure, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki can’t vote for Obama, but his endorsement of Obama’s general 16-month timeline – excuse me, time horizon – is a signal to American voters Obama is actually on the same page as the world leaders with whom he aspires to work. It gives him credence he can work with the international community, particularly the community our country invaded for no reason, unlike our current commander-in-chief, who is ineptly out of touch with both domestic and foreign affairs.
Plus, it is a nail in McCain’s campaign coffin – when the people you want to help for “100 years” say they don’t want your help anymore, it’s time to call it a day. It makes us bad house guests to stay beyond the time we invited ourselves there to begin with.
Many people have cited Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience in this post-9/11 world. But he is as well qualified as our pre-GW presidents, including Bill Clinton who proved to be, and remains, a very popular international statesman.
Clinton was the Governor of Arkansas for a dozen years. Arkansas. I’ve been to Arkansas. Twice, actually. It’s a lovely state with picturesque cities like Little Rock and Hot Springs, friendly people, and Starbucks with The New York Times, both much needed indulgences on a mid-summer road trip in the hot and humid South. (Yes, I said The New York Times and Starbucks. Brand me elitist. I also went to graduate school at an Ivy League and drink wine. It’s nothing I haven’t heard before, but I’ve spent more time at stock car races, watching wrestling and flipping burgers than most. It’s a well-balanced elitism.) Despite the lovely features of our 25th state, the most international experience Clinton acquired while governing there was when he met with the “Yankees” from up north at gubernatorial conferences and his Illinois in-laws at the holidays.
Besides, look at the all the experience that came with the GW administration: Donald Rumsfeld served in the Navy, Congress and the administrations of Nixon, Ford, Reagan; and Dick Cheney served in Congress, as well as the George H.W. Bush and Ford administrations. A lot of good that did us.
Following what will be eight years of destruction of America’s good standing in the world, alienation of our allies, and amplified agitation of our enemies, we need someone who can repair our foreign relations, can reach out to the rest of the world, who can identify with our international friends. After eight years of a president who had been outside the country three times before he was inaugurated and didn’t have a passport when he was elected, we desperately, desperately need someone with a global perspective.
Who better than someone born of a white woman from Kansas and a black father from Kenya? Who better than someone who has a half-sister born of that same white woman from Kansas and a man from Indonesia? Someone whose paternal grandmother, who is still alive, and half-siblings on his father’s side are actual Africans? Someone who spent part of his life growing up in Southeast Asia and Hawaii, our most exotic state?
As Fareed Zakaria put it last December in Newsweek, “For America to thrive, we will have to develop a much deeper, richer, more intuitive understanding of them and their peoples. There are many ways to attain this, but certainly being able to feel it in your bones is one powerful way.” Obama can not only feel it in his bones, but he has a global perspective by virtue of his DNA.
Having lived in Germany multiple times for many years, grown up on military bases, traveled to 49 out of 50 states (darn you, Hawaii, for being so elusive!), traveled throughout the globe and majored in international relations as a undergrad, I can tell you, foreign policy experience is not just about serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee, running the CIA (George HW) or serving in the Cabinet. Sometimes it’s about identifying with the rest of the world and having a sense of their point of view. This week, Obama is proving to the world, his critics and voters he is that person.
In a January issue of Newsweek, the other Illinois Senator, Dick Durbin, is quoted on his discussions around encouraging Obama to run. “‘I have colleagues who waited for years and the opportunity never came.’ Forget about the whole ‘experience’ question, he said. ‘A thousand more votes in the Senate isn’t going to make you a better president.’”
That is quite possibly the best perspective on the experience matter.
While McCain is off at picnics in Maine and golf carts on a former president’s compound, Obama is off showing the world and the country he is presidential material. Let’s just hope he doesn’t mess it up by giving German Chancellor Angela Merkel a neck massage later in the week. That would just be foolish.
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July 24th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Why is Obama in europe (on us) walking around, shooting hoops, and having fun? Did he forget America? We have a serious economic crisis issue going on here in America and O’bama is on vacation in Europe trying impress foreigners who cant vote for him. Hmmm. Sooo, thats it, obama went to afghanistan one time, went to iraq for the first time in a VERY long time, and he has foreign policy credentials!!!!! Man, i wish it would be that easy to gain credentials in the REAL world. Not to uhh be blunt or anything, but O’bama is an amateur compared to McCain. He served in the senate for what now…2 years? 3 years? That would make him an associate…hmmm fine fine, a senior associate! Its funny how this former community organizer goes around and people vote for him because he is young, cool looking, and has a team of advisors that choreographs his every step. Now, ill him that. If he were to perform in so you think you can dance, ill give him a 10 on choreography. But when you talk about policy, the guy is a doofus, with no clear understanding of economics. I am sad to say this, but 2008 will be remembered as the year when journalism died. Its so sad to me that the media (may i mention its 80% liberal) picks our president. Three major anchors go with Obama on his vacation to europe while McCain has been to the middle east 8 times and no anchors went with him. Obama’s op-ed was published, McCain’s was rejected. They dont even need to mentioned they are in the tank, because its obvious! Despite all this hype about O’bama’s well-versed choreography, McCain is only down 6 points. I cant wait till they debate and obama will have to come with something a little more clever than the word “change”..oh wait, obama doesnt want to debate with mccain.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I doubt the servicemen and women serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and to whom Obama paid a visit and received a very ethusiastic reception — and in military bases in Western Europe consider Obama’s trip a vacation or their time there a vacation. If he didn’t take time to shoot hoops with the hundreds of ARMY-t-shirt wearing men and women, he’d have been raked over the coals for that, too.
While Germans, Afghanis, nor the French can vote for Obama, American citizens living or studying abroad certainly can, and he is demonstrating to the rest of the world and Americans that unlike the current failure of a president, he is on the same page as the international community. He has demonstrated he can see from their perspective and isn’t wearing red, white, and blue blinders on his eyes. Merkel, Sarkozy, Peres, Barak, Olmert, and Karzai, etc. were under no obligation to meet with him. But they did. Clearly the international community wants to work with him as much as he wants to work with them.
As for The New York Times piece, please enlighten us on how the NYT not publishing a piece by McCain — which he was asked to edit and resubmit — is Obama’s fault. Last time I checked, he wasn’t on the NYT editorial board or a decision-maker in their policies on op-eds. The NYT is a free enterprise, something the Republicans love to tell everyone to keep their hands off of. Nor did the OBama team force the anchors to go with him; those decisions seem to have been made by the powers that be running the networks. I, too, have issues with the current state of media, but journalism integrity and running stories about celebrities’ divorces, custody battles, and box office tallies and all the other nonsense aren’t the candidates’ fault. Not for nothing, Roger Ailes, one of the most-staunchly conservatives out there, is in charge of Fox News. Perhaps when he lowered the bar, others saw it fit to follow. But that certainly isn’t Obama’s fault. As you pointed out, he wasn’t even around a dozen years ago when Faux news began its charade of fair and balanced. As for journalism dying, its obit has been written hundreds of times through the ages. Simply because it doesn’t currently favor your candidate doesn’t mean it’s keeled over yet again. I’m sure you were on the other side of the argument six years ago when the media failed to question the current administration and blindly took the bit Powell, Rumsfeld, Rice, Cheney, and Bush offered. To mean, that’s the most recent journalism death. That, and the homages and incessant coverage of Anna Nicole Smith’s death. THAT was journalism at its lowest.
Obama’s “well-versed choregraphy” is testament to well-run campaign, and if McCain’s people can’t do more than a “unavailable to the press Wednesday” and an event cancelled due to a Category-5 hurricane, that’s a testament to a poorly run campaign. Nothing is stopping McCain from taking his own foreign tour as a presidential candidate except McCain himself. Perhaps a letter of frustration to his campaign is in order.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Sandra,
Im glad we agree on the fact that the media is in the tank. I think that when it comes down to issues such as who will take money out of my pocket and tell me what to do, the media should be fair so that Americans can get both sides of the story. Being the free-market activist that I am, even though dissappointed, the media can do whatever they want. But that doesnt solve the problem of not exposing each candidate in the same regard.
Seriously speaking though, I dont want any candidate to be left out…I wouldnt want Obama to be left out. I am always in favor in power of choice and competition. Having only one candidate exposed would not lead to competition.
Do you have any suggestions on some possible solutions to this media issue?
July 25th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Nick and Sandra,
I want Obama the candidate left out. I propose a media blackout on him until mid Nov. Unfortunately that ain’t gonna happen. And the fact is that Obama touring the world is very important for the electoral process given all of our foreign entaglements. The next president is going to have alot on his foreign-policy plate and voters ought to be able to get a glimpse of how our next Executive handles the French and the Israelis and everyone else out there.
July 26th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/23/by_howard_kurtz_when_cbss.html?hpid=topnews
The above link is to an article regarding the edited CBS interview of John McCain. I am an independent, and am getting a bit sick of the whole “liberal media bias” spouted by conservatives, Rush Limbaugh in particular. If the media is so biased against McCain, why would they not air the interview as is and make McCain look as uninformed as he clearly is? Evidently, McCain’s experience isn’t doing him much good.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
The failure of our media to fairly attack or praise either of the candidates is only indicative of us as Americans and what we expect from our news sources. For better or worse, many Americans only get their news from one particular source of their choosing, whether that be Fox News, MSNBC, or The Daily Show. In our busy lives, even as technologically connected as we are, we often fail to make the extra effort to reach out and find any additional source for our news; or we spend so much time with like-minded individuals, our brains become hard-wired and focused only on what our beliefs are.
While I believe that McCain is mostly nothing more than Bush-light (which I certainly don’t want), I don’t feel as if Obama has proven himself to be anything more than a highly skilled politician (which I also don’t want) who will pander to whomever has the fattest wallets. The only kind of change that brings about is for those who carry around lots and lots of Benjamins. I believe this is starting to get more attention…no matter where you get your news.
August 12th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
First, I believe Maliki’s comment on the US leaving Iraq has been mis-characterized. I don’t believe Maliki said, “Barack is right, get our of here USA.” as many people seem to think. In fact the quote is, “U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes. “http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSL198009020080719
Notice the end of the statement. As has been said all along, we set a goal and then adjust based on reality. Who doesn’t want us to wrap things up as quickly as possible? But even Maliki isn’t foolish enough to set an actual timetable. All things must be done with the understanding that only time will tell when Iraq is fully ready and American’s can withdraw their troops confident that Iraq’s security is fully in place.
Second, Obama’s DNA has nothing to do with his ability to lead this country and connect with the rest of the world. I come from a family of six children. We are no more in agreement about how things should be done, just because we share DNA, that the writers on this site. In fact, I could probably find a sibling for each of the five political persuasions and still have one left over for the apathetic American who doesn’t even hold an opinion . . . and I didn’t even mention my parents yet.
Third, I am sorry to be so blunt, but who cares what European’s think of our President? (Keep in mind I have family in and from Europe. I love them, but they don’t have to deal with the consequences of our President like we do, nor are they all necessarily fans of their current governments and policies.) Of course we want good international relations, but not at the cost of integrity and principle. We must always hold fast to doing what is right whether it is popular or not. We should have all learned that lesson in high school. Most popular doesn’t equal a good idea or best person to lead.
Finally, all people need balance in their lives, I would no more criticize McCain for picnics and golf, then Obama for his vacation to Hawaii. I don’t know of anybody who can make a great decisions that doesn’t know how to balance work and recreation. Being President is a pretty stressful job.
That actually sound like the beginning of a great argument for term limits in Congress, doesn’t it?