Ding! Round one goes to the dove with the dodgy name (Guardian)

[arenean]

Republicans used to beat Democrats on foreign policy every time. But now Obama is changing the nature of the fight
Michael Tomasky, The Guardian

So, round one of the 2008 foreign policy debate goes to ... Barack Obama? Improbable as it seems, in the first direct rhetorical showdown of the general election campaign - over a question, foreign policy "toughness", that's been a perceived Democratic weakness since Vietnam - it was the guy with the thin foreign policy résumé, suspected by some of his compatriots of being a Muslim, who out-punched the war hero with the extensive résumé. And shall I add that the one with the thin résumé and the strange name has a dodgy position on the question at hand, and yet still won?

Here's how it unfolded. Last Thursday, speaking before the Knesset in Jerusalem, George Bush compared "some" Democrats to those who thought in 1939 that war might have been avoided if we'd just been able to sit down with Hitler and talk some sense into him. This was, despite some White House demurrals, a clear shot at Obama, who has repeatedly announced his intention to negotiate personally as president, and "without preconditions", with the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chávez. John McCain, that same Thursday morning, was giving a speech in part about the need to move beyond the partisan bickering of the last decade. Within an hour or two, following Bush's lead, McCain attacked Obama: "What does he want to talk about with Ahmadinejad, who said Israel is a stinking corpse?" The Obama campaign emailed reporters accusing Bush of launching "a false political attack".

Now here's the important part. In the past two presidential campaigns, that's where this would have ended. The Democrat "responded" for the record, but somewhat perfunctorily, while the Republicans got their point across: the Democrats are appeasers, the Democratic nominee wants to talk to terrorists and he won't keep the country safe. Game, set, match. This is how Bush built margins of trust with voters over Al Gore and John Kerry on national-security questions. Invoke appeasement of Hitler, toss in Israel's safety: this is exactly the kind of thing that sent Gore and Kerry running for the hills. Even Bill Clinton, who knew better how to return a punch, would have tried to change the subject back to the economy.

But the current version of the story ends differently.

Rest of article

[Submariner]

1. This is the attitude that has attracted me to Obama

Now here's the important part. In the past two presidential campaigns, that's where this would have ended.

I had a sense this guy is streetwise enough to know he has to hit back hard, and he did.

[uberllama42]

2. I don't agree with his characterization of Obama's position as "dodgy"

Meeting with a foreign power without precondition doesn't seem like a major concession to me. It's in our interest to do so. Is it really that important that we only meet with foreign leaders if they are willing to make concessions in exchange for being recognized?

[Doctor_J]

4. It says his name is dodgy

downright ethnic. But it isn't going to matter in November.

[uberllama42]

5. Farther down in the article, he says the policy is dodgy

But I also object to the comment about his name. I hope you're right that it won't make a difference in the fall.

[Doctor_J]

3. Here's another excellent graph

Obama is doing something altogether different. He is standing for an alternative vision of how America should operate in the world, and he is defending it tooth and nail. I'm not sold on the idea that negotiations without preconditions with hostile powers are the world's best strategy. If the US had some leverage over Iran that might be one thing, but, in our current state, we have little. Still, this is one of those cases where the symbolic message of what Obama did last Friday is more important, for now, than the substance. He said: These people have screwed up foreign policy and security. I have a different way of doing things. And I'm not ceding an inch.

:bounce:

Toodles, you spotty old dirtbag.