Just for fun, Mr. President-elect?
Reporter December 1, 2008 12:00 PM
Given that we've known about Barack Obama's national security and foreign policy team for days, today's press conference rolling out the principals offered little in the way of revelation. But the president-elect did manage one revealing moment, prompted by a question from Peter Baker of The New York Times.
Baker asked Obama to explain his evolution in thinking on the foreign policy resume of Hillary Clinton, whom Obama will nominate for secretary of state. Today, with Clinton behind him on stage, Obama praised his former rival's knowledge of the world, noting her relationships with foreign leaders and saying that she will "command respect in every capital."
As Baker noted, that's quite a different assessment of the New York senator's background than Obama offered during their primary battle, when Obama often sought to minimize -- and at times even belittle -- her professions of foreign policy experience. His campaign alleged that Clinton had "inflated" her claims of knowing the world and called them an "exaggeration."
To listen to Obama today, however, all of that was just campaign rhetoric, and it doesn't really matter anymore.
"This is fun for the press to try to stir up whatever quotes were generated during the course of the campaign, and you're having fun," he said. "And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not faulting it. But, look, I think if you look at the statements that Hillary Clinton and I have made outside of the heat of a campaign, we share a view that America has to be safe and secure, and in order to do that we have to combine military power with strengthened diplomacy."
That statement raises several important questions: What else that Obama said during the campaign will he now belittle as mere byproducts of campaign heat? Does Obama not think it's important for the press to elucidate serious differences between leading political figures? Does Obama, who prides himself on consistency, believe he will be able to swat away challenges to that notion so easily, and what will that mean for his relationship with the media?
boston.com |
