Listen people, I was at the rally yesterday where Obama talked about his foreign policy.

[blue neen]

The question was put to him about whether his foreign policy was somewhat "naive."

Obama's answer was that the Bush is the one who has been "naive" about his foreign policy because he refuses to meet with both our foes AND our allies.

JFK met with Kruschev, Roosevelt met with Stalin, Reagan met with Gorbachev, Nixon met with Mao. All of these presidents showed that it is important to strengthen diplomatic ties in this way.

He quoted JFK as saying, "It is important to keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

Here is a link to the speech so you can watch and listen for yourself. I actually think he answered this question very well.

http://kdka.com/video/?cid=42

[ensho]

1. smirk is not naive. Smirk/neo cons have successfully activiated all of their plans

If obama thinks smirk is naive then obama doesn't know the neo cons and he is the naive one.

[Lint Head]

4. They are niave in how to finesse power.

Everything is done with the boot heel. Killing is the answere to verey problem. Fuck fascists. Fuck Limbaugh. :dem:

[ensho]

6. they are not naive about power - when you own the biggest gun you make

your own power however you want to

have you forgotten what the neo cons said? they will make new realities whether we like it or not.

[NOLALady]

20. Yep.

They made their realities. It's a clusterfuck.

[RichardRay]

5. The neo-cons are incredibly naive (smart enough, but naive)

Yes, neo-conservatives been smart enough to get a lot of their agenda in motion. Their naiveté comes in their belief that the agenda has any long run chance of being successful. The neo-conservative agenda (see Neo-conservative Viewpoint) is the whining of a bunch of limousine liberals who discovered that they didn’t want to give up privilege to actually achieve the goals they espoused in their ‘salad days’; when the limo got a flat tire they bailed to a new ideology. As a world view it is about as realistic as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves or Supply Side Economics.

The smart bad guys (Cheney, et al) are not and never were neo-conservatives. They’re realists of a offensive bent who used the neo-conservative hobby horse to make hay. They’re the ones who need to be soundly defeated.

The neo-conservatives are wrong, the realists are bad.
naivete

[ensho]

7. you are trying to make two where there is only one neo con

nt

[RichardRay]

8. Whatever...

If you can't distinguish between neo-conservatism and political realism you certainly don't know enough to discuss the topic. When you learn enough to have an opinion in place of a prejudice come on back and we'll talk again.

[Drachasor]

9. They ARE naive about foreign policy

That has caused them to fail in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fail with Iran and North Korea. And fail on basically every major foreign policy objective.

[Cha]

14. If you think Obama wasn't being diplomatic then

you are the naive one.

[BeyondGeography]

15. Smirk thought invading Iraq would lead to democracy across the Middle East

That's not naive?

[ensho]

22. the neo cons don't care if 'democracy' spreads across the middle east

they want their business and power to spread across the mid east.

'wanting democracy' is a front.

[stevenleser]

24. They have failed in that too. People dont buy products from countries they despise...

Sorry, they are naiive to the point of stupidity

[stevenleser]

26. And as far as projecting power, they cannot even prevent Iran from having a big presence in Iraqi

affairs so that is a failure too.

[Buzz Clik]

19. And there we have it: some asshole on DU endorsing the Bush foreign policy.

Nicely done.

[stevenleser]

27. No, Ensho isn't doing that. He is wrong, but he isnt endorsing Bush's policy...

there is a viewpoint in some progressive circles that the entire point of the Iraq expedition was to create chaos and create conditions that require more US intervention, more projection of US power, etc. They argue that the Neocons thus achieved their objectives which were completely different from what was told to the rest of the country.

I think it can be easily proven that this was not their objective and that in any case, the war has not achieved those things. But I think it is important to characterize this viewpoint correctly.

[mmonk]

2. Yes. Obama is what I call real world in his approach.

The US has been weakened maybe for a generation on the views and actions of the bush administration.

[Cant trust em]

3. Gee. That makes sense.

Reason will never be enough for some people. All it takes is for some people to see "Democrat says something not damning about a republican" to cause a controversy.

[niceypoo]

10. Obama actually talked about policy?

Shock...

I am curious how he would stand up to a news conference.

[PA Democrat]

11. He took random questions from the audience.

They included questions about the solvency of Social Security and Medicare, the sinking dollar, taxes, health care, higher education costs, the "fair" tax, and foreign policy to name a few.

He answered the questions extremely well.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

28. Obama has been talking about policy all along.

You are lazily repeating a talking point.

[futureliveshere]

12. Brilliant answer... Almost sounds like Sun Tzu's "Art of War"..n/t

[Ysabel]

16. i've noticed that a lot of what he says is like that (n/t)...

[futureliveshere]

17. Yes, thats so true. He sees the big picture and can strike at the heart of an argument. Rare talent

[PA Democrat]

13. Yes, his answer was dead accurate, in that Bush has been more radical and naive in his approach to

foreign policy than every president in modern history. No diplomacy, no planning, no coalition-building. Bush is an utter failure because he chose to ignore lessons of the past.

[OzarkDem]

18. Wasn't that Don Vito Corleone's quote?

Obama is no JFK. He is an unknown quanitity to our foreign leaders. It will take many years for him to build up any level of trust with them, an uphill battle since Obama doesn't really seem that interested in foreign policy.

Foreign leaders aren't as easy to impress as law school professors or southern Illinois state senators.

[anonymous171]

21. And you would know this how?

None of our candidates can run on foreign policy.

[OzarkDem]

23. Bill Clinton was great at foreign policy

Everyone in the world except Obama and the GOP agree.

[UALRBSofL]

25. Obama does like endorsing those republican presidents

:)