" Obama, Supporters Seek To Redefine “Foreign Policy.”"

SaveElmer

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Thu Jul-26-07 11:08 AM
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" Obama, Supporters Seek To Redefine “Foreign Policy.”"

Nail...meet Head...!!!

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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