Obama's Foreign Policy Follies

The American people are getting a chance to see how unprepared Barack Obama's team of  advisors are to help lead this country through the minefield of foreign policy problems that await the next President.   Thank God Barack's advisors are not allowed to carry firearms.  They have spent the past week metaphorically shooting themselves in the feet and other delicate areas.  Just imagine the damage they would do with real bullets.

We started with the Austan Goolsbee flap.  You know, Barack's senior economics advisor who told the Canadians essentially that Senator Obama's public comments about NAFTA did not reflect his true feelings.  Poor Austan did not understand that foreign governments take notes and file reports with their counterparts back home.

Not to be outdone, Susan Rice, a senior foreign policy advisor, jumps into the fray and essentially shoots Barack in the back when she admits that neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton are qualified to answer a crisis phone call at 3am.

But wait, there is more.  Samantha Power, another high powered foreign policy advisor personally selected by Obama, calls Hillary Clinton a monster and then pulls a Goolsbee--she tells the BBC that Barack's stated plan to withdraw two battalions a month from Iraq is not firm and will depend on what the situation on the ground is in January of 2009.  While that may be a sensible position it does not jive with Obama's public position.  And in a Presidential campaign a major task for any candidate is to persuade voters that he or she can be trusted.  Well, this string of advisors saying their candidate does not mean what he says does not build the warm and fuzzy feeling among prospective voters.

But that's not all.  John Brennan joined the party.   Think Progress has the story:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has consistently spoken out and voted against granting retroactive immunity for telecoms that participated with the administration's warrantless wiretapping program. This stance was part of the reason he won the support of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), a leader on civil liberties issues.

One of Obama's advisers on intelligence and foreign policy advisers, however, is someone who "strongly" supports telecomm immunity. John Brennan is a former CIA official and the current chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. In a new National Journal interview, Brennan makes it clear that he agrees with the Bush administration on the issue of immunity.


Brennan is not some "Johnny come lately" adviser.  He's an experienced hand.  Brennan headed the National Counter Terrorism Center in his last job in the Bush Administration.  It was under John Brennan's watch that the Bush Administration issued false statistics on the number of terrorist attacks in 2004.  He tried to cook the books and keep the public in the dark that terrorist attacks had soared to unprecedented levels.  So if he is taking a position directly opposite of his candidate it has to mean he's gotten the same wink and nod that Austan Goolsbee and Samantha Powers got from Senator Obama.

Now, everyone can make a mistake.  But this is ridiculous.  These people cannot be trusted to accurately represent their candidate's public positions on key issues and Senator Obama wants the American people to trust his judgment in selecting folks to run the bureaucracies that he already admitted he can't run?  God save us.



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Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

Great dairy. I did not know about John Brennan. No wonder NBC and FOX love Obama: he is just like Bush. His rhetoric on the campaign trail is completely empty. It makes you wonder what are his true intentions on Iraq. Is he going to stay the course? Why hire John Brennan if Obama has sharp disagreement with the Bush on Terrorism?

Larr Johnson, are you the same from No Quarter? If so, I loved your comparrison of DailyKos to the book Animal Farm.


by moi moi on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 06:24:14 PM EST

Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

One and the same.


by Larr Johnson on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 06:25:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

Awesome! I am glad you post on MYDD as well. I read your blog almost everyday. Taylor Marsh led me to it.


by moi moi on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 06:34:12 PM EST
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Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

Whoa, you never leave yhe echo camber.


by Socraticsilence on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 07:39:54 PM EST
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Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

  TPM has Canadian PM denying HRC never contacted them about NAFTA.  Time to start eating crow BO fans


Wisdom Is The Reward For Listening Over A Lifetime
by gunner on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 06:43:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

But, Obama actually voted against immunity. Doesn't that trump the beliefs of one of his advisors?


by DPW on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 06:36:10 PM EST

Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

Yea, this is a bit absurd.  Each candidate has hundreds of people working for them.  You can EASILY find someone one their team that holds a contrary view on an important issue and then paint the candidate as "winking" on the issue for political gain.

This isn't a legitimate criticism of Obama, it's the start of a whisper campaign, plain and simple.

Next, are you going to start whisper that Obama has a black child?

(Oh wait...)


by Trent on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 06:45:07 PM EST
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Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

Obama has a black baby?? Oh my god. Wait 'till FOX gets hold of this...
Even John McCain lusts after teh engels.
by sricki on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 09:16:53 PM EST
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Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

Actually, Obama has virtually no record at all. And has ducked tough issues. So the question of how he will vote on a tough issue is answered by his history on the one tough issue he actually faced in the Senate: Nuclear Power in Illinois. There he presented himself with his words that he was a reformer, while behind the scenes he gutted all the teeth out of the bill and took the Nuclear Power industries proposal for the bill word for word. Yea, words are more than words: especially when they are the Nuclear Power industries words that Obama makes into law.


by moi moi on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 06:49:03 PM EST
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Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

For fuck's sake, it's impossible to take some of you people seriously. Here's the vote on telecom immunity:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/ro ll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?con gress=110&session=2&vote=00015

Obama voted for the amendment to strike immunity. Clinton didn't show. Yet, we're supposed to doubt Obama's sincerity when he claims to oppose such immunity. Unbelievable.


by DPW on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 06:55:01 PM EST
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Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

Name me one tough issue that Hillary went toe-to-toe with Bush on??

For 7 years our country has been ruined by a crazy President, and the oh-so-capable wife of the previous President has done little and taken NO chances to oppose him.

Because opposing him in a climate of apparent Republican supremacy would have compromised her future Presidential bid.  (Who would have known that the Democrats would have taken back the Congress in 2006?)

Seriously, list out the things that she has down to stand up to George Bush?

I know that she has supported him on the Iraq War as well as the amendment to list the Iranians as a terrorist group.  That will help facilitate another war.

But REALLY!  What has she done with her 7 years in office to take a stand against George Bush?


by Trent on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 06:58:47 PM EST
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Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

I can think of 8 years in the Clinton White House fighting the right wing attack machine. You know, the same machine Obama is trying to use now to attack the last successful Democratic President.


by moi moi on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 07:07:59 PM EST
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pathetic answer (none / 0)

u didn't even try to answer the question.

iraq? voted for it.
iran? voted for it again.
immunity? no show


by highgrade on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 08:46:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama the Liar---His Words Meaningless (none / 0)

Agreed, his word are more than just words: they are lies.


by moi moi on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 06:45:45 PM EST

Re: Obama the Liar---His Words Meaningless (none / 0)

First of all, I completely reject that Obama does not have his own strongly held political beliefs.

But for f-sake, Is a CLINTON supporter really going to try to throw the accusation that their opponent is poll driven and bases his political stances on how the wind blows???  The Kind and Queen of Triangulation?

More Karl Rove-style "Charge your opponent with your own weakness."


by Trent on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 06:49:37 PM EST

Re: Obama's Foreign Policy Follies (none / 0)

His whole campaign seems to have become one embarrassment after another.


No longer a Democrat, now proudly an independent voter!
by Ga6thDem on Fri Mar 07, 2008 at 10:11:08 PM EST


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