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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (64550)	3/4/2008 3:22:44 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

How Mainstream Can He Get? Power Line *Today the Washington Post reassures its readers that "Obama Tends Toward Mainstream on Foreign Policy":* <<< [F]or all the criticisms leveled at Obama, and his own professions of being the candidate of change, most of the policies outlined in his speeches, in the briefing papers issued by his campaign and in the written answers he gave to questions submitted by The Washington Post fall well within the mainstream of Democratic and moderate Republican thinking. >>> As we noted here, a number of Obama's policy prescriptions have been outside of what we consider the mainstream: <<< I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems... ...I will not weaponize space... ...I will slow development of future combat systems... ...and I will institute a "Defense Priorities Board" to ensure the quadrennial defense review is not used to justify unnecessary spending... ...I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons... ...and to seek that goal, I will not develop nuclear weapons... ...I will seek a global ban on the development of fissile material... ...and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert... ...and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals... >>> The Post's discussion is interesting, nevertheless, for what it tells us about Obama's inner circle of foreign policy advisers: <<< His eclectic group of senior foreign policy advisers includes former Clinton administration officials such as Anthony Lake and Susan Rice, as well as outsiders drawn to him by his unusual biography and his willingness to break with orthodoxy on what they see as "common sense" issues, including talks with Iran and the effectiveness of nuclear weapons against terrorism. Among the most influential are Samantha Power, a Harvard professor who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on genocide, and retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration. *** Early last year, as Obama's formal campaign structure was being developed, these "personal" advisers, with no official standing or government experience, clashed repeatedly with the more traditional members of the team. By numerous inside accounts, the writing of Obama's first major foreign policy address, delivered in Chicago last April, was a painful process in which Lake, a former national security adviser, and other more seasoned counselors felt they were not given due deference. "People like Sam Power are important to [Obama's] thinking, and he hadn't worked with Tony and Susan a lot," said one member of the team, who declined to discuss internal campaign deliberations on the record. While Obama's statements about nuclear weapons and attacks inside Pakistan made some of the more experienced members of the team recoil, the newcomers watched with admiration as the candidate "stuck out his chin and got hit and just kept going forward," this source said. >>> The "Sam Power" who is "important to [Obama's] thinking" is, of course, the same Samantha Power about whom Paul has written several times, including earlier today. The photo below, which ran with the Post's article, shows Power and Richard Danzig with Obama in New Hampshire: powerlineblog.com

To: Sully- who wrote (64550)	3/4/2008 3:31:59 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

When the Going Gets Tough, Obama Gets Going Power Line Going, that is, as far away from the Chicago press corps as he can get. Obama's friend and fundraiser Tony Rezko is on trial for extortion in Chicago, and reporters wanted to know about conflicting accounts of assurances that one of Obama's spokesmen allegedly gave the Canadian government that his anti-NAFTA speeches are just political talk. So an impromptu Chicago press conference turned ugly when Obama cut it off after only a few questions: Ed Morrissey writes: It appears that the local press has managed to do what the national media could not - treat Obama as a politician and not a secular messiah. They asked tough questions about Obama's political connections to a fixer and his campaign's outright false answers on an Obama adviser's contacts with Canadian diplomats regarding Obama's rhetoric on NAFTA. Instead of handling the questions calmly and patiently, Obama accused the media of having an agenda against him, and then angrily stalked off. Many have wondered whether Obama has the experience and temperament necessary to make it on the national scene; maybe the question should be whether he can last in his home town. powerlineblog.com